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HISTORICAL HANDBOOKS 

Edited by 
OSCAR BROWNING, M.A., 

FELLOW OF king's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE: ASSISTANT-MASTER AT 
ETON COLLEGE. 

Crown 8vo. 

History OF the English Institutions. 

^j/ Philip V. Smith, M.A., Barrister at Law ; Fellow of 
King's College, Cambridge. 

History of French Literature. 

Adapted from the French of M. Demogeot. By C. Bridge. 
The Roman Empire. From a.d. 395 to a.d. 800. With 
Maps and Plans. 

By A. M. CURTEIS, M.A., Assistant-Master at Sherborne 
School, late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 

History of Modern English Law. 

By Sk Roland Knyvet Wilson, Bart., M.A., Barrister at 
Lazv ; late Fellow of Jibing s College, Cambridge. [In the Press. 

English History in the XIVth Century. 

j5jj/ Charles H. Pearson, M.A., Felloiv of Oriel College, 
Oxford. [In the Press. 

IN PREPARA TION. 

The Great Rebellion. 

By the Editor. 
History of the French Revolution. 

By the Rev. J. Franck Bright, M. A., Fellow of University 
College, and Historical Lecturer in Balliol, New, and University 
Colleges, Oxford, late Master of the Modern School at Marl- 
borough College. 

The Age of Chatham. 

By Sir W. R. Anson, Bart, M.A., Felloiv of All Souls'' 
College, Oxford. 

The Age of Pitt. 

By Sir W. R. Anson, Bart., M.A., Fellow of All Souls' 
College, and Vinerian Reader of I^aw, Oxford. 

The Reign of Louis XI. 

ByY. WiLLERT, M.A., Felloiv and Lecturer of Exeter College, 
Oxford. 

The Supremacy of Athens. 

By R. C. Jebb, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, 
Cambridge, and Public Orator of the University. 

The Roman Revolution. From b.c. 133 to the Battle 
of Actium. 

By H. F. Pelham, M. A., Fellow ajid Lecturer of Exeter 
College, Oxford. 

History OF the United States. 

By Sir George Young. Bart., M.A., late Fellow of Trinity 
College, Cambridge. 



HISTORICAL HANDBOOKS 

EDITED BY 

OSCAR BROWNING, M.A. 

FELLOW OF king's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; ASSISTANT-MASTER AT 
ETON COLLEGE. 



[A— 134] 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



Roman Empire 

FROM THE DEATH OF THEODOSIUS THE GREAT 

TO THE CORONATION OF CHARLES 

THE GREAT, a.d. 395-800 



ARTHUR M. CURTEIS, M.A. 

LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD; ASSISTANT MASTER IN 
SHERBORNE SCHOOL 



WITH MAPS 



PHILADELPHIA : 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1875 



D\zi 



^ 






z^i 



I 



PREFACE. 

This book is the substance of a course of lectures, 
delivered to the two highest Forms in Sherborne 
School. It is meant to be a help towards bridging 
over the gulf between the two sections of history, 
which are popularly supposed to divide a little after 
the Christian era into ''ancient" and "modern." 
Such a division, however, produces error and con- 
fusion, by obscuring the unity and continuity of 
history ; the teaching of which loses half its value, 
if we forget that "Ancient" is the parent of "Medi- 
aeval," and therefore of " Modern " history, and that 
Imperial Eome is the centre and meeting-point of 
all history — ."an Universal Empire in which all 
earlier history loses itself, and out of which all later 
history grew."^ The position of Theodoric, Charles, 
or Frederick cannot be understood without reference 
to that earlier Empire of Theodosius, Constantine, 
and Trajan, of which the later was a direct conse- 
quence. 

For this reason I hope also that the book may be 

^ Freeman's General Sketch, cap, i. p. IG. 



vi Preface 

used with advantage in the highest Forms in schools. 
The objection, indeed, is sometimes raised, that works 
of this kind are of little use, being too condensed to 
be interesting or to convey adequate information. 
The objection would be fatal if true. Their real 
utility, however, depends on two things — the way in 
which they are used, and the judgment with which 
a writer omits or condenses facts. It is clearly not 
necessary to lay equal stress on all parts of history 
alike, because not all great men are equally great, 
nor all important crises equally important. And it 
is one advantage of such a period as is embraced in 
this book, that it centres naturally, and without the 
sacrifice of any important point, round the lives of 
a few men, who from character or circumstances 
" made " the history of their times. It is a further 
advantage, that almost every page necessarily con- 
tains allusions which a competent lecturer may, if 
he will, make the text for illustration, comment, 
and amplification. As random examples of what is 
meant, p. 48 might suggest a lecture on the Aryan 
languages, and on the Mnd of proof which they afford 
as to the relationship of Aryan nations ; pp. 137 
sqg. might be illustrated by legends, similar to those 
there mentioned; while chap. ii. would afford scope 
for a fuller explanation of the history and govern- 
ment of the early Church. Used thus as a " text- 
book " to be indefinitely expanded, I believe that a 



Preface vii 

" hand-book " may be made the vehicle of instruc- 
tion both accurate and wide. 

My main authorities throughout have been Gibbon, 
and Milmans "Latin Christianity." The only 
original research to which I can lay claim is a fre- 
quent reference to Eginhard for the life of Charles 
the Great. To Mr Freeman's works I am largely 
indebted, while in chap. i. I have borrowed freely 
from M. de Coulange's "Cite Antique." N"ot only 
for that chapter, but for the majority of chapters, 
I cannot acknowledge too warmly the debt which I 
owe to the works of the late M. Amedee Thierry. 

Lastly, I owe to one friend special thanks for in- 
valuable help and advice in every page of the book 
— my colleague, the Eev. 0. W. Tancock. 

A. M. CUKTEIS. 
Sherborne, January 1875. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL UNITY. 

Death of Theodosius and Condition of Empire — Influence of the 
Provinces — Policy of Julius Ceesar — Eeforms delayed by Csesar's 
Murder — Policy of Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius — Im- 
portance of the Provinces — Edict of Caracallus — Consequences 
of the Edict — Jealousy of East and West — Diocletian — Dio- 
cletain's failure — Constantine — Changes in the Constitution — 
Modification of Eoman Law — Koman Law gradually softened 
— Responsa Prudentum and the Edictum F.erpetuuTn — Sum- 
mary . . . . . . 1-19 

CHAPTER 11. 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE FIRST FOUR 
CENTURIES. 

The Church recognised by Constantine — Christians confounded 
with Jews — Christians Disliked and Persecuted — Effects of 
Persecution on the Church — The Decian Persecution — Fifty 
Years' Peace — The Diocletian Persecution — Toleration under 
Galerius and Constantine — Christianity the dominant State 
Keligion — Influence of Christianity on the Empire — Moral 
Evils deep-seated when Christianity was introduced — Effect of 
Christian Morality — Excellent Organisation of the Christian 
Church — Christianity the State Church . . 20-41 



X Contents 

CHAPTER III. 

THE BARBARIANS ON THE FRONTIER. CENT. IV. 

Romans and Barbarians from the same Stock — Who were the Ary- 
ans ? — Semitic and Turanian Races — Aryan Migrations — Kelts 
— Teutons — Slaves — Relations between Empire and Barbarians 
— Tribes lying on Roman Frontiers — Huns — The Teutonic 
Races— The Goths — The Vandals — The Burgundians — The 
Franks — The Saxons — The Lombards — Summary of First 
Three Chapters ..... 42-54 

CHAPTER IV. 

CHURCH AND STATE IN CONSTANTINOPLE, 
EUTROPIUS, AND CHRYSOSTOM. 

Death of Theodosius — Sons of Theodosius — Rise of Eutropius — 
Allies of Eutropius — Right of As5dum — Chrysostom: Life at 
Antioch — Death of Nectarius — Eutropius appoints Chrysostom 
— Character of Chrysostom — Hatred of Eutropius — Quarrel 
between Eutropius and the Empress — Interference of Chry- 
sostom — His famous Sermon — Condemnation of Eutropius — 
Sequel of his Downfall .... 55-67 

CHAPTER V. 
CHRYSOSTOM AND THE EMPRESS EUDOXIA. 

Difficulties of Chrysostom — Chrysostom unpopular with the Clergy 
— Unpopular with the Rich — The Friends of Chrysostom — 
Intrigues against Chrysostom — Troubles with the Arians — 
The "Tall Brothers" of the Nitrian Desert — Intrigues of 
Theophilus — Council of the Oak — Condemnation of Chrysos- 
tom — Sermon against the Empress — Deportation of Chrysostom 
to Chalcedon — Riot and Earthquake in Constantinople — Chry- 
sostom Recalled — Statues of the Empress — Council of Con- 
stantinople — Chrysostom forbidden to leave the Palace — His 
Disobedience — The Council Ratifies his Condemnation — Chry- 
sostom appeals to the "West — Second Exile of Chrysostom — 
Riot and Burning of St Sophia — Chrysostom Conveyed to Cu- 
cusus — Removal to Pityus— Death at Comana in Pontus 68-94 



Co7i tents xi 

CHAPTER VI. 

ALARIC AND THE VISIGOTHS— A.D. 396-419. 

State of Italy — Alaric the Yisigoth. — Province of Eastern lUyri- 
cum — Alaric in Illyricum — Stilicho prepares to Attack — Alaric 
and Stilicho in Peloponnesus — Revolt of Gildo suppressed — 
Threatened Invasion of Italy — Battle of PoUentia — Inroad of 
Eadagaisus — Olympius — Murder of Stilicho — Reaction in Italy 
— Alaric Marches on Rome — First Siege of Rome — Nego- 
tiations for Peace — Second Siege of Rome — Third Siege and 
Sack of Rome — Death of Alaric — Succeeded by Ataulf and 
WaUia " . 95-117 

CHAPTER VII. 

GENSERIC AND THE VANDALS— A.D. 423-533. 

Events following the Death of Honorius — Yalentinian III. — Pe- 
tronius Maximus — Last Twenty Years of the Western Empire 
— The Transition — The Yandals — Their Migrations — Genseric 
King — Invasion of Africa — The Yandal Kingdom — Rome 
sacked by Genseric — Policy of Genseric — Expedition against 
Carthage — Basiliscus its Leader — Defeat of the Expedition — 
Decline of the Yandal Power . . . 118-135 

• CHAPTER VIII. 

ATTILA AND THE HUNS -A.D. 435-453. 

King Attila — The Traditions about Attila — Gallo-Roman and 
Italian Traditions — East German or Gothic Traditions — "West 
German and Scandiaavian Traditions — Nibelungen-lied — Hun- 
garian Traditions — Summary — State of Central Europe — At- 
tila, King — Gradual Encroachments — Embassy to Constan- 
tinople — Counter - Embassy — Attila demands the Princess 
Honoria — Alliance with Genseric and the Franks — Attila 
Invades Gaul — Siege of Orleans — Relief of Orleans — Battle 
of Chalons — Attila threatens Italy — Embassy from Rome 
to Attila — Attila leaves Italy — Marriage and Death of 
Attila ...... 136-154 



xii Contents 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE "CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT "—COMMONLY 
CALLED THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE, 

A.D. 475-526. 

Results of Attila's Death — Orestes the Pannonian — Eomulus Au- 
gustulus — Downfall of Orestes and the Emperor — A Change 
in Form of Government — Odoacer "King" — Difficulties in 
and out of Italy — Odoacer subordinate to the Emperor — Theo- 
doric sent to reduce Italy to Obedience — March of Theodoric 
— Struggle between Odoacer and Theodoric — Convention of 
Ravenna — Murder of Odoacer — Prosperous Reign of Theodoric 
— Close of Theodoric's Reign . . . 155-171 

CHAPTER X. 

THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN— A.D. 527-565. 

Contrast of East to "West — Justinian — Justinian's Rise — Descrip- 
tion of Justinian — The Nika Riot — Belisarius compared to 
Marlborough — African Campaign of Belisarius — Position of 
the Yandals — Africa reduced in Three Months — Pretext for 
the Invasion of Italy — Belisarius reduces Sicily and South 
Italy — Siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths — Siege raised — Fall 
of Ravenna — Recall of Belisarius — Revolt of the Goths — 
Narses in Italy — Conclusion . . . 172-189 

CHAPTER XL 

THE EMPIRE IN RELATION TO THE BARBARIANS OF 

THE EAST— A.D. 450-650. 

Subject of the Chapter — Results of the Death of Attila — Dangers 
on the Frontiers — The Middle Danube — Eastern Danube and 
North Coast of the Euxine — Huns on the Tanais — The Sla- 
vonians — Avars, Turks, &c., in Central Asia — Persia — Bar- 
barian Irruptions across the Danube — The Avars — True Story 
of "False Avars" — Avars attack the Slaves — Persian En- 
croachments — Heraclius prepares for War — Treachery of the 
Avars — Heraclius victorious in Persia — Successful Defence of 
Constantinople — Effects of the "War . . 190-209 



Contents xii 

CHAPTER XII. 

MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM— A. D. 622-711. 

Mohammedanism — Secondary Causes of Success — Cliaracteristics 
of Arabia — Cliaracteristics of Tribes — Political and Eeligious 
Confusion — Primary Causes 'of Success — Mohammed's Early 
Years — Mohammed "called" to be the Prophet of God 
— Ill Success of Mohammed — The Hegira or Flight of Mo- 
hammed to Medina — First Proclamation of War against In- 
fidels — Fall of Mecca — Death of Mohammed — The Doctrines 
of Mohammedanism — The Unity of God — Angels and Genii — 
The Koran — The Creed — Articles of Keligion — "Was Moham- 
medanism Original ? — Mohammedan Conquests . 210-227 

CHAPTER XII I. 
THE POPES AND THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY— 

A.D. 540-740. 

Gregory the Great — State of Italy after its Conquest — The Lom- 
bards — Lombard Conquest of Italy — Territorial Limits of 
Exarchate — Gregory I. — Interview of Gregory with English 
Slaves — Gregory prevented going to England — Sketch of Eng- 
lish History — St Augustine — Effects of Christianity in Eng- 
land — Gregory as Bishop, Pope, and (virtual) King — Gregory 
II. — Eise of Iconoclasm — Leo III. the Isaurian — Attempts to 
force Iconoclasm upon Christendom — Iconoclastic Controversy 
in the East — In the West, Papal Appeal to the Franks 228-246 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY— A.D. 500-800. 

The Franks — Gaul under the Romans — Invasion of Roman Gaul — 
Gaul divided between Yisigoths, Burgundians, and Franks — 
Chlodwig and Merwing Dynasty — Rise of the Mayors of the 
Palace — Charles Martel — Battle of Tours — Results of Charles' 
Victory — Gregory III. appeals to Charles — Gregory succeeded 
by Pope Zacharias — Coronation of Pippin — Pippin and Pope 
Stephen — Pippin's "Donation" to the Papacy — Charles 



xiv Contents 



crowned Emperor of the West — Results of Coronation — Con- 
quests of Charles the Great — His Policy — Character and Person 
of Charles — General Summary . . . 247-265 

The Synopsis of Historical Events . . . 266-268 

Index ....... 269-279 



MAPS. 

Central Europe .... to face page 54 

The Roman Empire . . . „ 208 

Italy ..... ,,246 

Europe in time of Charles the Great . ,, 262 



succeeds Pippin — Charles increases the " Donation" — Charles i 



C^e 3^ciman Cmpt^e. 

CHAPTER I. 
ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL UNITY. 

Death of Theodosius and Condition of Empire 

— The year a.d. 395 — The year of tlie death, of Theo- 
dosius the Great was important in the history of Eome. 
The Empire, which in 1,000 years had grown from the 
limits of a single city and a narrow territory to embrace 
Tinder one government, one law, one religion, the whole 
civilised world, had fallen a prey to internal dissensions, 
and was to succumb ere long to enemies from without. 
The evils consequent on the incessant wars of the Re- 
public, both foreign and civil, had wrought their effect. 
The middle class in Italy was almost destroyed, and its 
place fiUed by a vast slave population. Property had 
passed into a few hands. Conquest in the East had 
brought an influx of Oriental vice and luxury. The old 
Eoman faith and morality were supplanted by mingled 
atheism and superstition. The gulf between rich and 
poor grew ever wider. Honour, morality, public spirit, 
decayed, until " the Empire," the irresponsible rule of a 
single man, had become the best hope of salvation for 
society, the only condition of impartial and just govern- 



2 History of the Roman Empire 

inent. In fact, there had been for many generations two 
opposite forces at work simultaneously : on the one hand, 
and on the surface, the ever growing desire for equality 
and unity; on the other hand, and beneath the surface, 
the disintegration which follows from class hatred, from 
decay of honour and pohtical virtue, from immorality 
and ignorance. The disintegration was complete when at 
the death of Theodosius the Empire fell asunder, and Milan 
or Eavenna in the west, and Constantinople in the east, 
became rival capitals of rival empires, never again united. 
Influence of the Provinces. — The great Empire 
had now completed the work, which beginning with the 

.' foundation of the city took its final direction and received 
its greatest impulse from Julius Csesar. Eoman history 

■ has many sides according to our point of view : revolu- 
tions social and political; wars civil and foreign; its laws, 
its great men; but Eome's place in universal history is 
determined by the great result which she impressed on all 

) the nations brought within her injGluence — uniformity of 
administration, law, and religion. JSTo doubt the process 
was a slow one. It needed 1,000 years to consolidate so 
vast an Empire, and weld it into one homogeneous mass. 
Eor 250 years Eome had withheld her rights of citizen- 
ship from her Itahan subjects — rights only wrung from 
her by defeat. To the provinces, the confederate states, 
the allied kings, the Eoman Senate maintained a haughty 
attitude, allowing them to groan beneath the rapacity 
and tyranny of unscrupulous proconsuls, whom the tri- 
bunals were too interested or too corrupt to convict. 
But in their extremity they found aUies. The democratic 
party in Eome, engaged in a desperate struggle with the 
aristocrats, were glad to find allies in the provincials; the 
provincials in their turn were ready enough to purchase 
by alliance what they so much coveted, citizensliip and 



Administrative and Legal Unity 3 

equality. And it was in the provinces that Julius Caesar, 
the great leader of the democrats, found his staunchest 
supporters. 

Policy of Julius Osesar. — Of so many-sided a 
genius it is natural that men should form different esti- 
mates; it would be difficult to form an entirely just one. 
Beyond a doubt he was ambitious, immoral, and quite 
free from scruples. Eut if he had the ambition to be 
the first man in the state, he had also the foresight 
to see what a magnificent opportunity the errors of the 
aristocratical party had given him, and the genius to use 
it with success. Men act from mixed motives; and it 
would be as absurd to ascribe Csesar's extraordinary 
career to motives of selfish ambition only, as to credit him 
with feelings of pure philanthropy. He had all the 
genius, rapidity of action, fertility of resource, and versa- 
tility of Napoleon, but he was a far greater man. It 
may have been cunning ambition, it may well have been 
some more honourable feeling, which prompted him from 
his entrance into public life to form and maintain friendly 
intercourse with the leading men and senates of various 
provinces — to procure the Eoman franchise for Gallia 
Transpadana — to keep up a correspondence, even dming 
his hottest campaigns, with all parts of the Empire — to 
spend money in repairing public buildings in Gaul and 
Spain, Asia and Greece. Whatever were his motives, he 
had his reward, and that without delay. The provin- 
cials, despised and ignored by the aristocracy of Italy, 
saw their opportunity in the impending struggle of parties, 
and when Csesar crossed the Eubicon (e.g. 49), and com- 
mitted himself to the contest with the Senate, it was with 
the open support of some, and the good wishes, expressed 
or understood, of all the Eoman provinces. And, thus 
supported, in four years he was master of the Empire. 



4 History of the Roman Empire 

Reforms delayed by Caesar's Murder — ^b.c. 44. — 
The reorganisation of the body politic should naturally 
now have commenced; it was a calamity for the world 
that Ceesar fell a victim to political vengeance almost 
before he had begun the work of reform. Some few 
hints, however, are left us of his probable intentions. He 
projected a codification of the laws — a geographical survey 
of the Empire — a reform of the law courts — an increase of 
the Senate to the number of 1,000, by the admission of 
provincial notables, especially from Gaul and Sj)ain — an 
extension of the rights of citizenship (beyond the mere 
accident of birth and locality) to all men of education, 
intelligence, or wealth throughout the Empire, a principle 
afterwards accepted and extended — and lastly, a large in- 
crease of colonies. Of these vast projects a part only 
was even begun, but it is as easy to perceive the general 
idea of their originator as to understand the rage of the 
aristocratic party, whose most cherished privileges would 
thus have been destroyed. Uniformity of rights and 
privileges meant for them loss of power and dignity. The 
death of Caesar appeared their only means of safety; and 
so the hand of the enthusiast Erutiis was armed with the 
assassin's dagger. But they had miscalculated the effect 
of the blow. It simply threw the provinces into the 
arms of Caesar's adopted son, and rendered their own cause 
and the cause of the Eepublic hopeless. It threw extra- 
ordinarj'^ powers into the hands of individual leaders, and 
for one political purpose only — the unification of the 
Empire on the ruins of the Eepublic. 

Policy of Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. — 
The policy of Julius was accepted by his successors more or 
less entirely as a tradition of the Empu'e. Augustus, how- 
ever, more cautious and less foreseeing, was content to con- 
solidate and organise. In order to acq[uaint himself with 



Administrative and Legal Unity 5 

the needs of the provinces, he visited every one of them, 
except Africa and Sardinia j he provided for their better 
government by their division into " imperial " and " sena- 
torial" groups, reserving for his own supervision those 
which were from any cause especially exposed to danger, or 
especially important to the state, such as Transalpine Gaul 
or Egypt ; he instituted a regular series of posts or couriers 
from one end of the Empire to the other; he rescued the 
provinces from one of their most bitter grievances, the cor- 
ruption of the governors, by reducing them to salaried of&- 
cials, who as government agents were in strict subservience 
to the home government, and forbidden to receive anything 
beyond the contributions allowed by the Senate or ordered 
by the Emperor. The successor of Augustus, the cruel 
and gloomy Tiberius, was popular out of Italy, and the 
first nine years of his reign were years of order and 
equitable government for the provinces. Tacitus, the 
best of authorities in such a case, assures us that the pro- 
vinces were not harassed by new burdens, nor the old 
burdens made heavier by the avarice or cruelty of officials, 
while scourgings and confiscations were unknown; and 
Suetonius has preserved for us the 1)011 mot of Tiberius, 
often repeated, that " the office of a good shepherd is to 
shear and not to flay his sheep." Claudius, himself a 
provincial and born at Lyons, always entertained a strong 
feeling of affection for the provinces, and especially for 
Gaul, the organisation of which he completed. It was, 
indeed, his firmness alone that, in the famous debate in 
the Senate which Tacitus records in the Annals (xi. 23), 
secured for the Gauls the coveted jus honorum. They 
had for some time enjoyed the civitas, and now claimed 
the completion of their privileges. In the arguments 
adduced in the Curia against the concession of their 
claims, we see the true spirit of the old Eoman ohgarchy. 



6 Hisiorv of the Roman Empire 

" Could not Italy," it was urged, "find men enough to fur- 
nish • her own Senate % At least she had done so in the 
good old days ! And now a mass of aliens must be intro- 
duced to oust the poor nobles and senators of Latium — 
aliens, too, who but the other day had fought against 
Caesar^ and whose ancestors had even burnt Eome itself !" 
Tacitus has given us also the purport of Claudius' reply. 
He began by reminding his hearers that Eome owed even 
her origin and early fortunes, and many of her noblest 
families, to the principle of comprehension. " In the 
palmiest days of the Eepublic, Etruria, Lucania, all Italy, 
had sent members to the Senate. JSTor was this all. The 
plebs had been adjuitted to share magistracies with the 
patricians, the Latins and other Italian nations with botL 
The peace of Italy had been assured from the day when 
the nations beyond the Padus had been admitted to the 
citizenship. Lastly," he asked, "why did Athens and 
Sparta, powerful as they were, perish, but for the fact 
that they kept their vanquished foes at arms' length, as 
though they were foreigners ?" The demand of the Gauls 
was granted; but the savage indignation of the old aristo- 
cratical party, long pent up, broke out in innuendo and 
satire. " What else could one expect," says their mouth- 
piece, Seneca, ^* from one born in a province !" 

Importance of the Provinces. — Yet in spite of the 
oligarchs the tide was now flowing strongly, and could 
not be stemmed. The provinces had made good their 
footing as integral parts of the Empire. The Senate (to 
which Tiberius had transferred the powers of the ancient 
"com^Y^a," and which he transformed into a sort of immense 
privy council), the bar, the army, were all crowded with 
provincials. Eich men from the provinces flocked to 
Italy, and bought out the dissolute or impoverished repre- 
sentatives of old patrician famihes. Literary men opened 



Administrative and Legal Unity y 

schools, l^or was this all. With. Galba the imperial 
secret was divulged, says Tacitus, that an emperor could 
be nominated elsewhere than at Eome; for Galha was 
made EmjDeror in Spain. And worse was yet to come, 
for even provincials, it seemed, might he emperors. Nerva 
was a Cretan hy descent ; Trajan and Hadrian werer sons 
of Spanish colonists ; Septimius Severus was an African, 
who never got rid of his Punic accent ; Maximin, worst of 
all, was a barbarian. Every year the provinces grew in 
relative importance, and claimed more and more of the 
imperial attention. Hadrian spent no less than fifteen 
years of his long reign in visiting province after province, 
and by using the experience thus hardly won in improv- 
ing the imperial administration^ gained for himself the 
title of locwpletator orhis, and the praise from Tacitus 
of having happily combined two things heretofore incom- 
patible, power and liberty. Egypt alone seemed ex- 
cluded from the privileges showered by Emperor after 
Emperor on the provinces. Egypt was the granary of 
Eome ; and the necessities of Italy seemed to justify the 
exclusion of that province from the rights conceded to 
others. JS'o admission to the Senate, no share even in 
Eoman citizenship, was granted to Egyptians, except in 
the rarest cases, until Caracallus, the son of Septimius, 
relieved the province from this selfish interdict, and the 
unwonted sight was seen of an Egyptian sitting in the 
Eoman Curia. 

Edict of Caracallus — a.d. 212. — One thing now, 
and only one, remained to finish the important movement, 
which had been inevitable from the day when Eome's 
first province was annexed. In the year a.d. 212, an 
edict of Caracallus extended the rights of Eoman citizen- 
ship to every free inhabitant of the Eoman Empire. It 
is easy to assign motives, and historians, astonished that 



8 History of the Roman Empire 

this just and liberal edict should bear the name of one of 
Eome's most worthless Emperors, have found its explana- 
tion in the fact that Augustus had levied a succession duty 
of 5 per cent, on legacies and inheritances of all Eoman 
citizens, and that thus, by a stroke of the pen, the inci- 
dence of the tax was universally widened, whale the tax 
itself was doubled. Others have assigned the edict itself 
to more probable originators, like Antoninus or Hadrian ; 
but this is quite unnecessary. Even were the Emperor's 
own motives purely mercenary, it would be idle to suspect 
the motives of the great jurists of the day, who must 
have had the arrangement, draughting, and application of 
the Act j and no less idle to suppose that such an edict 
would have been possible unless called for by the circum- 
stances of the times. Such Acts, indeed, recognise accom- 
plished facts, and have nothiag to do with producing 
them. 

Consequences of the Edict.- — The consequences of 
the edict were curious and far-reaching. Henceforth the 
old-fashioned distinctions — Eoman, Latia, Federal, Ally, 
Subject — all vanish. There are but two words to express 
the inhabitants of the world, — " Ingenuus," the Eoman, 
the Freeborn; and "Peregriuus," the Slave, the Barbarian. 
Within the Empire the long struggle for equality was 
finished. In another way, however, its consequences 
were disastrous to the Empire itself, while useful to the 
world at large. The glory of the name "Eoman" became 
less and less, as it was shared by greater numbers. What 
had once been a bond of union to a handful of men 
among strangers, a badge of j)rivilege, an object of ambi- 
tion, a source of loyalty to the mother city, ceased to be 
a distinction, or the cause of any great advantage, when 
shared by all in common. Eivalries had been forgotten, 
local and narrow iaterests overlooked, as long as there 



Administrative mtd Legal Unity 9 

remained one coveted privilege enjoyed by some and 
denied to others ; but local interests gained fresh, im- 
portance, and rivalries sprang up again, when the 
height of ambition was attained. Instead of one great 
centre of attraction there were henceforth many local 
centres. 

Jealousy of East and West. — And now dangers 
were threatening the frontier on many quarters at once, 
on the Euphrates, the Danube, the Ehine. The second 
Persian Empire was just rising on the ruins of the Par- 
thian (a.d. 226) — the Goths were on the Danube — Franks 
and Alemanni were menacing the West. And yet, at 
such a crisis it was that the jealousy of East and West 
made united action almost impossible, — a jealousy which, 
arising from diversity of language and ideas, and from 
contrariety of interests, had only lain dormant beneath 
the pressure of superior force, and now that from various 
causes the central power was weaker, began to gradually 
undermine the stability and unity of the Empire. In- 
deed, a tendency to division had shown itself many years 
before. Long since, on the death of J^ero (a.d. 68), 
Spain, Africa, Gaul, and Syria had set up favourites of 
their own. In later days, when Commodus was mur- 
dered (a.d. 192), and the miserable Pertinax and Didius 
successively ascended and were hurled from the throne 
within six months, the choice of Emperor was contested 
by the legions of Britain, Pannonia, and Syria. This ten- 
dency in the outlying provinces to nominate Emperors of 
their own, and in the strong frontier armies to break 
loose from the central authority, increased as time went 
on, until in the middle of the third century, and under the 
feeble rule of Gallienus (a.d. 260-268), rival claimants of 
independent authority rose in many quarters at once (the 
so-caUed " Thirty Tyrants "), and only ten years later 



10 History of the Roman Empire 

(a.d. 270-275) Auielian Mmself, every inch a soldier, had 
some difficulty in suppressing the attempt of Zenohia to 
erect an independent kingdom at Palmyra, and a similar 
attempt of Victoria and Tetricus in Gaul and Britain. 

Diocletian — ^a.d. 300. — The difficulties, indeed, of the 
Eoman government towards the close of the third century 
were not removed, but only changed. It was not now the 
persevering claims of provincials which had to be recoaciled 
with the haughty exclusiveness of an ancient aristocracy. 
That was a thing of the past. What most embarrassed 
the governments of Probus and Diocletian was the vast 
extent of the Empire, coupled with the threatening atti- 
tude of the barbarians, and the independent mutinous 
spirit of the legions. Emperor after Emperor was mur- 
dered. Legion after legion revolted. To guard the fron- 
tiers, to anticipate dangers, to control the soldiers, to 
humour or repress powerful subordinates, and, meanwhile, 
to carry on the political administration of a huge empire, 
was a task too great for one man to fulfil. The problem 
was how to multiply and extend the direct action of the 
central power without destroying the hardly- won unity of 
the Empire. An attempt to solve it was made by Diocle- 
tian (a.d. 284). He conceived the idea of an undivided 
Empire governed by two Emperors, — one in the East, the 
other in the West, — governing in concert, on the same 
principles, and by the same laws. Erequent interviews 
were to insure their unanimity. Even so, however, there 
remained the danger of either or both the Emperors falling, 
as before, under the influence of some praetorian prefect or 
court favourite, and the yet greater danger of an unsettled 
succession. Accordingly, the governing power was again 
doubled. To each "Augustus " was attached a " Csesar," 
a subordinate colleague ; and these, in their turn, were to 
rise to the highest rank, and thus supply an undisputed 



Administrative and Legal Unity 1 1 

and uninterrupted succession of Emperors. The ja^ugusti, 
while exercising a joint supervision of the whole Empire, 
had each a separate jurisdiction. Thus, Diocletian ruled 
the East, with Nicomedia (in Bithynia) for his capital ; 
Maximilian, Italy and Africa, with Milan for his capital. 
Of the two Csesars, Galerius was intrusted with Illyricuni 
and the Danube, Constantius Chlorus with Gaul, Spain, 
and Britain. The Empire was practically ruled by four 
Emperors, to resist whose power, so long as they were 
unanimous, might well seem hopeless. The imperial 
dignity was further fenced round by a largely increased 
number of functionaries and officials, forming, as it were, 
a barrier against undue familiarity j and for the first time 
was introduced into common use the ominous title of 
" Dominus " (Sire). In fact, everything was done to 
elevate, isolate, consecrate as much as possible the person 
of the Emperor, as though it had become too cheap in 
popular estimation. It is curious to reflect how public 
opinion must have changed in 300 years. Augustus, 
undisputed master of the Avorld, with all the reins of 
government gathered in his hands, was content with the 
reality of power, and careless of its parade and show, 
studiously avoiding ostentation, and living only as the 
first of Eoman gentlemen. Diocletian and his successors 
surrounded themselves with Oriental magnificence, to 
dazzle men's eyes and enthral their imaginations, and so 
paved the way for the minute ceremonial and slavish 
reverence for title and rank which afterwards distinguished 
the Byzantine Court. 

Diocletian's Failure. — On the other hand, while the 
court and Emperor were thus hedged round with external 
respect, and government agents and officials indefinitely 
multiplied throughout the provinces, the influence of the 
Senate was sapped and ultimately destroyed, not only 



12 History of the Roman Empire 

because it ceased to be consulted, but also by tbe removal 
of the court from Eome. Eome herself was discontented 
at the loss of prestige ; while Italy, hitherto privileged 
by exemption from certain, taxes, and especially the land- 
tax, was for the first time, and to the great satisfaction of 
the provinces, sm^veyed and assessed with a view to its 
payment. For the new imperial system was expensive. 
The number of salaried officials — that is, of persons with- 
drawn from industrial pursuits — was largely increased ; 
the industrial classes themselves had been decimated 
generations before by civil war, and were now compara- 
tively a mere handful ; slave labour had been substituted 
for free; prices had accordingly risen, and money was scarce. 
The effect of the reforms introduced by Diocletian was 
not precisely what he had contemplated. Their principle, 
indeed, the principle of duality in unity, was recognised up 
to the downfall of the Western Empire, and even later, and 
was more thoroughly carried out by his greatest successor 
Constantine, than by Diocletian himself. The maiu evil, 
however, which they were intended to correct they did in 
truth aggravate. As long as the four rulers of the Em- 
pire were unanimous, and each subordinated his private 
interests to an imperial policy and the common weal, 
disruption was impossible, and the mutual jealousies of 
East and West were repressed by sheer force. But when 
the interests and ambition of one Augustus conflicted 
with those of the other, when Caesar intrigued against 
Csesar, and the Empire was again desolated by civil wars, 
the old jealousy broke out with redoubled violence; 
while in each quarter of the Empire there was now an 
armed force, and a great military chief able to asser this 
independence. Constantine's vigour and force of cha- 
racter, it is true, once again held together the discordant 
mass (a.d. 306-337), but it was only for a few years. 



Administrative and Legal Unity 13 

On his death, anarchy again ensued; reunion became 
more and more impossible \ and in a.d. 364, Yalentinian 
divided the Empire with his brother Yalens, — a division 
which meant no longer the joint rule of an undivided 
Empire, but two Emperors ruling two Empires, never 
again united. 

Constantine — a.d. 330. — The name of Constantine 
will be remembered mainly for two reasons — his recogni- 
tion of Christianity, and his foundation of a new capital. 
The same motives which actuated Diocletian in abandon- 
ing Eome deterred Constantine from returning to it ; and 
he had another besides. Not only was he equally alive 
with Diocletian to the special dangers of the time, which 
he strove to avert by an extension of Diocletian's policy, 
but he was also a Christian j and a Christian Emperor 
committed to a policy of despotic absolutism could hardly 
find a congenial or suitable caj)ital in Pagan Eome, where 
a Senate was still sitting, and the traditions at least of 
hberty and equality were still alive. Constantine, how 
ever, victorious in many a pitched battle over formidable 
rivals, was not one to acquiesce quietly in the dismem- 
berment of the Empire. He clung to the imperial tradi- 
tion of its unity, and for him, therefore, [N^icomedia and 
Milan were as impossible capitals as Eome. In the final 
struggle with Licinius (a.d. 323), he had seen and noted the 
unrivalled position of Byzantium, the home for centuries 
of a Greek colony. Standing, like Eome herself, on seven 
hills, and midway as it were between Europe and Asia, 
it possessed a magnificent harbour of seven miles in length, 
the so-called " Golden Horn," a temperate climate, a fertile 
soil; and the approach on the land side was of narrow ex- 
tent, and easily defensible. Here in less than seven years 
arose the glorious city, whose successful resistance to all 
attacks for 1 100 years is in itself a proof of its founder's 



14 History of the Roman Empire 

wisdom. Constantinople (so tlie new capital was named), 
the abode of the Emperor and his court, the seat of go- 
vernment, the headquarters of Christianity, was soon 
filled with a dense population, drawn thither from all 
quarters of the Empire by one motive or another, and 
was solemnly inaugurated as the capital of the Empire on 
May 11th, 330. In less than a century the new Eome 
had surpassed the old both in wealth and numbers. 

Changes in the Constitution. — IS'or was Constan- 
tine content with a mere change of capital. The numbers 
of the "bureaucracy," or government officials, were con- 
tinually increased ; military and civil functions were for 
the first time separated ; a new order of nobility was in- 
troduced; the term "patrician" ceased to be an here- 
ditary, and became a purely personal distinction ; agents 
were employed in hundreds as " king's messengers," to 
convey despatches, who too soon became also informers 
to headquarters; lastly, to diminish the possibility of 
revolt, the number of men in a legion was reduced from 
6,000 to about 1,500, while the actual numbers of the army 
itself were increased. Each legion had been a corm 
cVarmee, and was now reduced to the position of a regi- 
ment, or at most of a brigade. There were six praetorian 
prefects with administrative functions only (the prefects 
of Rome, and Constantinople, of the East, Illyricum, 
Italy, and Gaul), and two masters-general of cavalry and 
infantry, responsible for the military arrangements of the 
Empire. This organisation of ranks and honours was 
carried from the highest down to the very lowest classes 
of society, even the working-classes in city and country 
being arranged in guilds and corporations, with similarity 
of occupation as their basis. Thus, from the Emperor on 
the throne to the serf on the farm, there was a settled 
gradation of ranks, the object of which was to secure to 



Administrative and Legal Unity 15 

tlie Empire stability and peace, and to tlie Emperor 
respect. 

Modification of Roman Law. — The administra- 
tive nnity thus completed had been accompanied, almost 
})aTi passu, by a remarkable modiJB.cation of Eoman law, 
calculated to meet the needs of a vast empire. The con- 
trast between the haughty exclusiveness of the patrician 
aristocracy of the Eepublic, and the humane and just 
comprehensiveness of the Empire, is not more striking 
than that between the stern and almost brutal law of 
early Eome and the equitable maxims and philosophical 
principles of the later imperial jurists. Eoman law^ indeed, 
was only one instance of the rigid spirit pervading all 
Aryan law. " In ancient law," says Mr Maine, " we are 
met by fhe family as the unit of society, in modern by 
the individual." JSTow the constituting principle of the 
family, according to primitive Aryan ideas (see chap, iii.), 
was neither blood-relationship nor natural affection, but 
family worship, — the worship in earliest times not of 
various gods representing the forces of nature, much less 
of one God (a much later development), but of the dead. 
The due worship of the departed members of the family 
was the primary duty of its living members, and to secure 
this was the object of ancient law. And this is the key 
to the otherwise unintelligible severity of Eoman law. 
The priest of the family was the father, invested, there- 
fore, with all the stringent privileges of patria potestas. 
Hence the importance of the male, of the son, who in his 
turn was to become the family priest, and the utter un- 
importance of the female, who as daughter only assisted 
at her father's worship, as wife at her husband's. Apart 
from father or husband, she had no existence in the eye 
of the law ; and marriage, performed with certain defuiite 
religious ceremonies {confarreatio), was in fact her initia- 



1 6 Histary of the Roman Empire 

tion into a new religion, the worsliip of tlie ancestors of 
lier liusband. She passed thereby into her husband's 
power intanus), and became his " daughter." Of course, 
as time went on and ideas developed, civil marriage (by 
usus, a year's cohabitation, or coemptio, purchase) be- 
came common enough ; but confam^eatio was the original 
and formal celebration of Eoman marriage. Hence arose 
the distinction between agnati and cognati, — ^between 
those members of the family who traced their connection 
exclusively through males, whether by blood or adoption, 
and those who drew their descent from the same original 
parents, whether through males or females. Hence, again, 
the importance of the family property, of the house and 
hearth where its gods were worshipped. Alienation was 
entirely forbidden by ancient law, and not allowed even 
by the twelve tables, except on certain conditions and 
with express formalities ; for the property of fche family, 
like the relations of its members, depended altogether on 
its worship. As the son, in the eye of the law, was all- 
important and the daughter nothing, the son inherited 
and the daughter did not; his sons likewise inherited, 
but her sons, being only cognati to her own family, had 
no such power; even a stranger adopted as son by a 
paterfamilias inherited, while the emancipated son, cut off 
as it were from the family, did not ; wills were unknown, 
for the father was but a temporary representative during 
life of a corporation that never died, the family, and was 
not allowed to interfere with, property in which he had 
only a life interest. Hence, lastly, the severity of the 
law of debt. On the other hand, the patria ijotestas of 
the paterfamilias, clung to at Eome long after it had reaUy 
become an anachronism, gave him absolute rights within 
the family short of the above conditions. He could 
acknowledge a child, repudiate a wife, marry or disinherit 



Administrative and Legal Unity ly 

a son at pleasure. The wife's dowry and the son's labour 
belonged to him of right. Within the walls of his house 
he was sole judge, and could in certain cases even con- 
demn to death without appeal. Long after the worship 
of ancestors had ceased, long after the ''family" had 
expanded into the "gens" or "clan," and the gens into 
the " curia," and the " curia " into the " tribe," and the 
" tribe " into the " city," these ancient prerogatives were 
still enjoyed by the paterfamilias. 

Roman Law gradually Softened. — The reason 
of this harshness, it may be, lies in the fact that the 
social customs and institutions of the E,oman Eepublic 
were identical with those of the great Aryan family prior 
to its disruption, while their poUtiGol institutions were 
totally different, being of far later growth under quite 
other conditions of life. Now, " social," no less than 
" political," relations modify, at the same time that they 
are regulated by law. We should expect, therefore, what 
actually happened, that when Eome came in contact 
with other nations beyond her frontiers, Eoman law 
was profoundly modified. A comparative study of ahen 
laws and customs gave rise to a new term, jus gen- 
tium, expressive of the general point in which they were 
observed to agree; while by a further induction the 
Eoman lawyers strove to arrive at the abstract principles 
of justice, jus naturale, underlying them all, with a 
view to the modification of their own barbarous civil law. 
These principles were gradually embodied in the "edicts" of 
the prtetors, the "rules" which they published annually 
on their entrance into ofi&ce ; and by slow degrees tended 
to banish the study of the Twelve Tables even from the 
schools, where they had formed part of the usual course. 
But in this, as in the wider field of political right, 
there were two parties, and a struggle between the con- 

ROM. EMP. B 



1 8 History of the Roman Empire 

servatives and the reformers. The new views mainly 
affected such questions as the position of slaves, the mar- 
riage and dowries of women, wills, wardship, disinherit- 
ance, titles to property, deht, — questions on which the 
civil law was most ohviously at variance with natural 
justice. And the general tendency was always towards a 
relaxation of strictness. 

Responsa Prudenturo. and the Edictum Per- 
petuum. — It remained for the Empire to organise these 
new principles of law, as it had organised the political 
administration. Since the Emperors concentrated in their 
own hands every old republican office, amongst others 
the trihunitia potestas, they became, therefore, in their 
own persons a court of final appeal. Part of the onerous 
duty they delegated to the praetorian prsefect, in part 
they were assisted by a commission of lawyers, whose 
opinions {responsa ^jrudentum) were supposed to emanate 
from the Emperor himself, and to guide the decisions of 
judges. Thus by a legal fiction the Emperor was the 
interpreter of the law. Moreover, when Tiberius trans- 
ferred to the Senate the legislative and other powers 
of the comitia, senatus consulta, being discussed and 
passed beneath the Emperor's eyes, were in fact his 
work, and before long imperial " decrees" and "rescripts" 
were published as ipso facto laws. It is clear, however, 
that such a system had no method, and that the edida 
prcetorum and the responsa prudentum must have been 
innumerable, and always increasing, shifting, and some- 
times contradictory. With the view, therefore, of re- 
ducing chaos to order, the Emperor Hadrian published 
the edictum perpetuum.. Taking the edict pubhshed by 
the great lawyer, Salvius Julianus, during his year of 
office, he made it the standard of legal decisions for Eome 
and Italy, — a rule to which subsequent praetors were 



Administrative and Legal Unity 19 

bound to conform, save in new and exceptional cases. 
Marcus Aurelius extended its application to the provinces, 
under tlie name of Edidum provinciale. More and 
more henceforward the civil law and the jus gentiiim 
tended to agree, until at last Christianity introduced a 
principle which human law could not, the brotherhood of 
all men, and so fundamentally changed their relations, at 
least in theory. Little by little the patria potedas 
was deprived of its absolute character, until under Jus- 
tinian it meant no more than the moral authority belong- 
ing to the head of the family. Marriage with religious 
ceremonies became confined to the pontifices; the wife's 
dowry became inalienable without her consent, and after- 
wards inalienable altogether; the distinction ceased between 
agnati and cognati, and with it the necessity for adop- 
tion ; in the case of property natural relationship began to 
occupy a larger and larger place, and the law of succession 
became gradually regulated on simple principles of greater 
or less "proximity." These few instances will serve to 
illustrate how law became gradually synonymous with 
equity. 

Summary, — ^Thus at the death of the Emperor Theo- 
dosius (a.d. 395), we have before us the spectacle of a vast 
Empire, troubled indeed by internal jealousies, and weak- 
ened by causes past remedy, yet presenting on the surface, 
at least, an appearance of unity, — governed in the same 
way and on the same principles from end to end, in Asia 
as in Italy, in Africa as in Gaul, and subject throughout 
to the same laws. 



CHAPTER IL 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE FIRST 
FOUR CENTURIES. 

The Church recognised by Constantine. — Little 
has been said as yet of one of the most important forces 
at work within the Empire — the Christian Church In 
three centuries the small body of first hehevers in Christ, 
a mere handful in numbers, having ah things in common, 
had grown into a vast and organised Church, wealthy and 
powerful, whose bishops took equal rank with the military 
and civil officers of State, and which counted followers ia 
every province of the Empire. Indeed, at the time of its 
recognition by Constantine, Christianity was aheady an 
estabhshed society, with its own officers, its ovni revenues, 
its own code of laws; and after Constantino's conversion 
Christians stepped at once into prominence and influence. 
Thousands of the best and most upright men in the Em 
pire, previously ignored or persecuted by the State, were 
thus restored to civil and political Kfe; and of course the 
State benefited accordmgly. 

This chapter will narrate the fortunes of the Church 
to the end of the fourth century, and touch upon 
the means whereby she won her way to recognition, 
equahty, supremacy, and the special difficulties with which 
she had to contend 



Christian Church in first Four Centuries 2 1 

Christians confounded with Jews. — Perhaps tlie 
most remarkable thing in the rise of Christianity is the 
silence and ohscurity in which it worked its way, and 
the scanty records that remain to us of its progress. We 
gather, indeed, from the Acts of the Apostles and the 
Epistles, that the work of " organisation" had hegnn 
before S. Paul's death, and that the number of believers 
increased continuously; we know that as they became 
more numerous the Christians were confounded with the 
Jews in common estimation, and thus suffered persecution 
(not only from them but) in common with them. Yet 
up to the persecution under JSTero (a.d. 64) they attracted 
so little attention at Eome by their numbers or religious 
observances, that S. Paul was detained for two years 
(a.d. 61-63) as a mere political prisoner in what was called 
Custodia militaris, and then probably set at liberty, 
while contemporary writers— like Lucan and the elder 
Phny, Persius and Juvenal — make no mention of them. 
Even the persecution just named, consequent on the great 
fire of Eome, and set on foot (if we may believe Tacitus) 
by i!^ero himself, very probably arose from Christians 
being confounded with Jews in the eyes of the people, or 
from the Jews accusing them to screen themselves. One 
thing is certain, that the Christians in Eome suffered 
dreadful tortures at this time, while before they had en- 
joyed complete toleration; and it is not improbable that 
the persecution itself first opened the eyes of the Eoman 
government and people to the existence of the Christian 
Church, among them but not of them, while it made sub- 
sequent persecutions seem natural and defensible. Amidst 
all the pomp and bustle of the great capital, a Eoman 
would hardly stop to distinguish in his own mind Jew 
from Christian, or either of them from the votaries of 
other Eastern Religions who were always flocking to Eome. 



22 History of the Roman Empire 

But wlien tlie existence of this new sect, and its aggressive, 
uncompromising temper were once fairly realised, it is 
eyident that the average Eoman was much perplexed by 
the attitude of the Christians, by their obstinate firmness, 
coupled with their innocence of vice or crime. This is 
clear from Pliny's letter of inquiry to the Emperor Trajan 
regarding his treatment of them in his province of Bithy- 
nia. He does not understand, nor apparently much care 
to understand their views and hopes; yet he admits their 
singular purity, honesty, and simplicity, while stating 
that acknowledgment of their faith met with capital 
punishment at Ms hands. And the Emperor expresses 
approval of this policy, merely warning Pliny not to 
allow search to be made for the offenders, nor to accept 
anonymous information. 

Christians Disliked and Persecuted. — There was, 
in fact, more than one reason why a Eoman should feel 
suspicion and jealousy towards Jews and Christians ahke. 
Both announced their confident hope in a "Deliverer" 
soon to come. Both held aloof, almost with, horror, from 
the social life and customs and religious practices of the 
people around them. If the former seemed the more 
dangerous, because still a nation, still capable of sudden 
and dangerous rebellion, the latter were not less obstinate 
in their nonconformity, while they had apparently less 
reason for it. They were a sect or (even worse) a "secret 
society," whose objects were imperfectly understood, and 
therefore all the more hateful to a despotic government. 
To a soldier and disciplinarian Hke Trajan, Christianity 
seemed little better than treason. On the other hand, 
men's minds were being deeply stirred by vague rumours, 
now of an expected return of some pretended ISTero from 
the East, now of intrigues in Parthia, now of fires and 
earthquakes and eruptions, all tending to rouse and in- 



Christian Church in first Fotir Centuries 23 

flame fanaticism. Of this latent dislike and suspicion, 
easily fanned into active hatred, the Christians heoame 
the objects. And they did not shrink from the ordeal, 
more and more terrible as time went on. Bishops and 
leading men like Ignatius and Poly carp even courted a 
death which they least deserved. It may well have been, 
moreover, that the dislike felt in the highest as well as 
the lowest circles towards the Christians, when once 
attention had been drawn to their existence, was -aggra- 
vated by the mutual jealousy of East and West. For 
Christianity was of the East, its language, organisation, 
Scriptures, and liturgy, being all alike Greek — that is, to 
a Eoman of those days, foreign. If we attempt to esti- 
mate the converging force of all these prejudices — of the 
dislike felt by soldiers and statesmen, and the hatred of 
the fanatic, licentious, and ignorant — we shall be surprised 
that Christianity survived the storm at all. 

Effects of Persecution on the Church. — But the 
blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. The persecu- 
tions in the reigns of ]^ero and Trajan may have been 
local, and traceable to accidental and temporary causes ; 
not so the subsequent persecutions under Aurelius, Sep- 
timius, Decius, and Diocletian. That which to Trajan 
had been merely a breach of state discipline, and punish- 
able accordingly, seemed to his successors a far more 
serious crime, in proportion as to neglect and insult 
the national gods at a moment of increasing disaster was 
worse than merely declining State duties in a time of 
comparative peace and tranquillity. JSTow began, also, the 
publication of those "Apologies" for Christianity which 
served to show at once that Christians were too numerous 
to be any longer overlooked, while they were too few or 
too true to their principles to offer resistance to persecution. 
The reign of the great and good Aurelius, so terrible to the 



24 History of the Roman Empire 

Christians, was marked by the appearance of many such 
•works. It is scarcely wonderful to find, on the other hand, 
that men and women quailed sometimes before the storm, 
and that a practice began to arise which, intended as a 
means of escape, eventually proved a stimulus to persecu- 
tion. N"o longer overlooked with contemptuous indifference, 
but exposed to the hatred of the mob, the jealousy of the 
authorities, the coldness and perhaps treachery of friends 
and relations, what wonder if weak brethren here and 
there yielded to temptation, and stooped iojpurchase from 
the magistrate his connivance in their secret profession of 
Christianity ? The evil grew. ISot individuals only, but 
whole churches raised funds for buying off their members 
from molestation, while the funds themselves only served 
to stimulate the cupidity of informers and officials, and 
so to aggravate the sufferings threatened or inflicted. A 
further abuse followed. The magistrates received powers 
to issue an order that so and so, mentioned by name, 
should do sacrifice to the gods, and thus prove that he was 
not a Christian. It became gradually a common practice 
for such a person to give notice, through a friend, that he 
was in reality a Christian, and therefore could not sacrifice, 
but was ready to pay a fine to be excused. On this he 
received a lihellus or certificate of his having duly offered 
the required sacrifice, and being accordingly exempt from 
the penalty of the law. The acting of this practical lie was 
sharply denounced by Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (about 
A.D. 250), as a sin. But the custom was in fact only a 
symptom of what is harshly called the " degeneracy" of 
the Catholic Church, that is, of the effects consequent on 
its increase of numbers, and unavoidably increased con- 
nection with the non-Christian world. It was no longer 
unusual for Christians to resort to heathen courts of 
justice, to be servants in heathen households, to contract 



Christian Church in first Four Centuries 25 

marriage witli lieatliens, to frequent heathen theatres and 
spectacles, and to defend the practice by appeals to Scrip- 
ture. Such an intermingling invariably results in a 
certain relaxation of original strictness, and in the growth 
of abuses. 

The Decian Persecution — a.d. 248. — The "acci- 
dental tempest," as Gibbon calls it, of the persecution 
under Septimius (about a.d. 200) was followed by an almost 
complete lull of thirty-eight years. But the short reign 
of Decius brought such suffering on the Church as made 
previous years since the times of Domitian and ISTero seem 
all like years of peace. Like Aurelius, this Emperor 
was called upon to face new and unexpected dangers on 
the frontiers from the Goths; and like Aurelius, anxious 
to restore the power and unity of the empire, and per- 
plexed as to the causes of its growing weakness, he seemed 
to perceive them in the obstinate nonconformity of the 
Christians. Instruments were found only too readily to 
act upon the imperial ideas. For the Christian theory 
and practice were too high not to excite dislike, which 
soon passed into active hatred and violence. The test 
of sacrifice to the gods was, by a special edict, ordered 
to be apphed at once to all suspected persons. J^umbers 
were consigned to prisons and to mines. Midtitudes 
fled from their homes to the mountain or the desert, 
only to fall victims to starvation or wild beasts. 
Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, and not cities only, 
but even villages, suffered from this inquisition. Rome 
for the first time saw her bishop suffer martyrdom 
(Fabianus, a.d. 249); Cyprian escaped from Carthage for 
a while, but was beheaded eight years afterwards, the first 
martyr among African bishops. Origen of Alexandria 
was tortured at Csesarea, and died of injuries then re- 
ceived. Eut in churches, as in individuals, times of 



26 History of the Roman Empire 

trouble are often less dangerous to virtue than times of 
peace and prosperity, and tlie Decian persecution purified 
while it tested the Christian Church. 

Fifty Years' Peace. — And now, once again, for more 
than fifty years, there was comparative rest for Christians. 
Either their relative importance had so far increased, or 
the world at large had become so familiar with their 
name and customs, that they were permitted to avow 
their faith openly, to conduct their elections pubhcly, to 
fill offices, to build churches. We are, in fact, approach- 
ing the time when the State was no longer able to with- 
hold recognition from a body, which counted its adhe- 
rents by thousands in every province of the empire. 
Even in the reign of Decius (a.d. 250) the Eoman Church 
itself had a bishop, forty-six presbyters, v/ho were the 
parish priests of Eome, seven deacons, and ten "suburbi- 
carian" or suffragan bishops of adjacent towns, like Ostia 
or Tibur, who met in Synod at Eome. By the end of 
the fourth century the bishops of the empire numbered 
1,800, — 1,000 in the Eastern provinces, and 800 in the 
"Western, who were elected by the inferior clergy, the 
nobles, and people of the diocese, and the election ratified 
by the bishops of the province, That the doctrines of 
Cln:istianity should find favour with women and slaves 
was not, perhaps, astonishing, considering the position 
they occupied in the world. We find them even pene- 
trating, not now for the first time, to the interior of the 
palace, and the wife and daughter of the Emperor Dio- 
cletian, and many of his principal of&cers, embraced the 
tenets and protected the faith of Christianity. The first 
eighteen years' of Diocletian's reign, indeed, were years 
of perfect toleration, for the Emperor was a man of great 
breadth of view, and of a generally humane disposition. 
But its close was disfigured by a fierce persecution, the 



Christian Church in first Four Centi^ies 27 

order for wMcli was wrung from hira rather than volun- 
tarily issued. There is no question that for nearly 200 
years the influence of Christian ideas had heen secretly 
working an effect beyond the limits of the Church in 
reawakening belief, not perhaps in polytheism, but in 
natural religion. And this reaction operated in two ways. 
While it inclined the more virtuous and thoughtful to 
view the Christians with tolerance, it influenced the re- 
ligious fanaticism of the ignorant, and supplied a ready 
mine of violence, when violence was needed. At times 
this fanatical spirit was exasperated beyond bounds, by 
the knowledge that not only was the number of converts 
to Christianity daily increasing, but the area from which 
they were drawn was daily widening — that not only the 
poor but the rich, not only the ignorant but the educated, 
not only the slave but the high born lady, were falHng 
within the fatal influence of the new rehgion, and alienat- 
ing the gods by their apostacy. And this helps to explain 
the curious fact that, while on the whole, from Trajan on- 
wards, the Christians enjoyed longer and larger intervals 
of toleration and peace, the persecutions when they arose 
were more and more searching and terrible. 

The Diocletian Persecution — a.d. 303. — The per- 
secution of the year 303 seems to have differed somewhat 
from others in its origin, as well as in its character. 
Diocletian's colleagues, Maximian and Galerius, entertained 
a strong dislike towards Christianity — a dislike deepened 
and strengthened by the discovery, that the army also was 
tainted with these dangerous notions. No thorough-going 
soldier, indeed, could possibly overlook such conduct as 
that of Marcellus, the centurion, who, at a pubhc festival, 
being called upon to sacrifice to the gods, threw away belt 
and arms, and insignia of office, and exclaimed aloud that 
he would obey none but Jesus Christ, the eternal King, 



28 History of the Roman Empire 

and that lie renounced for ever the use of human weapons. 
He was tried, condemned, and beheaded for mutiny and 
desertion. This was martial law, however, not religious 
persecution ; but this and other like incidents appear to 
have sunk deeply into the mind of Galerius, as being symp- 
toms of prevalent principles, dangerous to public safety. 
Accordingly, after the Persian war, when Galerius spent 
the winter of the year 302 with Diocletian at Mcomedia, 
he used, and used successfully, his utmost efforts to induce 
the Emperor to assent to a fresh trial, whether this im- 
■perium in imperio, with its own taxes, and officers, and 
code of laws, could not finally be extirpated. The open- 
ing act of the drama was the destruction, on February 23, 
303, of the principal church in I^icomedia by the imperial 
troops. On the next day an imperial edict was published, 
ordering that all churches throughout the Empire should 
be demolished, that those who held secret assemblies for 
religious purposes should be punished with death, that ail 
sacred books and writings should be publicly burnt, and 
the property of the Church confiscated. Ereeborn Chris- 
tians were debarred from honours or employment, Christian 
slaves from aU hope of emancipation. Scarcely, how- 
ever, was the edict posted in Mcomedia when it was torn 
down by the hand of a Christian, who paid the penalty 
of his life. He was arrested and roasted to death over a 
slow fire. Diocletian's alarm at the approbation expressed 
at the act was further increased by his palace being dis- 
covered to be on fire twice within fifteen days — a deed, of 
course, attributed to Christian malice. Accordingly, his 
scruples were silenced, and the bloody work of persecu- 
tion began. Some opposition and slight disturbances 
in the execution of this edict increased his indigna- 
tion, and led to the publication of further and severer 
edicts, directing the arrest of all ecclesiastics, and the 



christian Chicrch in first Four Centuries 29 

employment of any severity to redaim Christians from 
their rebellion against the gods, and their treason to the 
Empire. Even inmates of the palace and high, officials 
were compelled to abjure Christianity, or were put to death. 
The Bishop of JSTicomedia was beheaded. Many Chris- 
tians were burnt alive, many thrown into the sea with 
stones round their necks. Erom the capital the persecu- 
tion spread into the provinces, where they were assailed 
by the united forces of the goi^ernment, the pagan priest- 
hood, the mob, and the philosophers. Gaul alone in a 
measure escaped, thanks to the humanity, or (if we may 
beheve Eusebius) the Christian sympathies of Constan- 
tius Chlorus. It is the worst evil of religious, perhaps of 
all persecution, that in order to succeed it must have re- 
course to always increasing severities, and be prepared 
to go all lengths, even to extermination. There is only 
one alternative, the acknowledgment of failure. Hence, 
in the present case, edict succeeded edict, each more 
barbarous than the preceding, as Christian courage and 
heroism rose higher. The illness and abdication of Dio- 
cletian even aggravated the evil. * Eor Galerius in the 
East was more implacable than Diocletian in his hatred 
of Christianity j and Maxentius in the West, driven to 
stand on the defensive against the rising ambition of the 
young Constantine, purchased the support of his pagan 
subjects by persecution of the Christians, whom they de- 
tested, It is no wonder that throughout the Empire the 
churches began to turn their eyes with hope towards the 
West and Gaul, for the enemies of Christianity were the 
enemies of Constantine. His mother Helena, they may 
well have remembered, was a Christian, and his father, 
Constantine, had at least not whoUy yielded to the in- 
human policy of Diocletian and Galerius. To him, there- 
fore, they naturally began to look as a possible protector. 



30 History of the Roman Empire 

Toleration under Galerius and Constantine. — 
Meanwhile persecution, which, had thinned the numbers 
and fallen heavily on the leading members of the Chris- 
tian body, had not dimmed the faith, nor blunted the 
devotion of the mass of behevers. And now they were 
about to enjoy a well-deserved triumph. Galerius, in the 
18th year of his reign, was* attacked, like Herod the Great 
and Philip II. of Spain, by a loathsome and agonising 
disease. From his dying bed he published an edict, 
acknowledging the failure of the severities he had advised 
against the Christians, permitting the free exercise of 
their religion, and finally imploring their prayers for their 
suffering Emperor, The news, of course, spread rapidly. 
Prison doors were thrown open. Mines gave back to life 
and light their labourers. Churches were repaired, and, 
ere long, filled with throngs of thankful worshippers. The 
reaction was complete, when the victorious Constantine 
avowed himself a Christian, and by the famous edict of 
Milan (a.d. 313) gave to Christians, as tvell as to all others, 
free toleration to follow whatever religion they pleased. 
All buildings and churches previously confiscated were 
restored, the Emperor himself giving large sums of money 
to build new and rebuild old or ruined churches. He 
even attempted to adjust disputes within the Church, was 
present at synods, and presided at the first oecumenical 
council at Mcaea (a.d. 325). The triumph of Christianity 
was still further assured by the rise of the new capital 
(a.d. 330), which, if not distinctly Christian, certainly was 
not pagan. As yet, no doubt, and almost to the end of 
the century, the two religions stood side by side, pagan 
temples side by side with Christian churches ; yet the 
great influence of Christianity can scarcely be doubted, 
when we know that the amphitheatre of Constantinople 
was never from its foundation disgraced by the bloody 



Christian Church in first Four Centuries 31 

spectacle of gladiators, and tliat to accommodate tlie num- 
ber of Christian worshippers the Basilicse, or " Halls of 
Justice," in many towns were consecrated to their use. 

Christianity the dominant State Religion — 
ABOUT A.D. 380. — One attempt, and only one, was made to 
galvanise the dying paganism into renewed life by the 
Emperor Julian (a.d. 361-3) ; but its ill success served to 
show how deeply the roots of Christianity were planted, 
and that paganism was practically dead. Perhaps no 
happier event could have befallen the world than Julian's 
death in the heart of Persia, apparently so unfortunate 
and ill-timed. Had he lived to persecute it would have 
been at the peril of his fame, and success could hardly 
have been obtained except by civil war. This, happily, 
was not to be. In the reign of Theodosius (a.d. 379-395) 
Christianity became the recognised State religion, and it 
is hardly surprising that in the hour of victory the 
aggressive side of the now dominant religion hitherto 
repressed by force began to show itself, and the heathen 
party in the Empire to feel the heavy hand of go- 
vernment as the Christians had felt it before. Almost 
the first act of Theodosius was an edict commanding 
universal obedience to the Catholic faith j his last edict 
went far towards exterminating paganism, by insisting on 
the destruction of temples and idols, the alienation of 
temple revenues, the cessation of priestly privileges, and 
by proclaiming the ancient worship a treasonable and 
capital crime. Thus the unity of the Empire, which (as «. 
we have seen) had been gradually attained by uniformity 
of government and law, was further secured by uniformity 
of religion. And this unity, was not only in the judgment 
of early Christian writers but in reality, a primary con- 
iition as well as the most efficacious means of spreading 
Christianity. When Gaul, and African, and Italian, and 



32 History of the Ro7nan Emph'e 

Egyptian were all members of one great political body, 
governed by tbe same laws, using the same language for 
legal and political purposes, moved by tbe same ideas, 
then, and not till then, was it possible to include nations 
so many and diverse within a common church. 

Influence of Christianity on the Empire ? — But 
the question may possibly here be asked, "What influ- 
ence did Christianity exercise on the Empire % Did not 
the religion which converted it to a purer faith and uni- 
form worship, thereby infuse also some vigour into the 
decaying body V Eor at first sight it seems strange that 
an Empire thus consolidated should have fallen so easy a 
prey to enemies from without as it afterwards did. In 
truth, however, there were, and for centuries had been, 
evils lying at the root of society, which were inveterate 
from long standing, and had eaten away the very pith 
and marrow of Roman probity and manliness — evils which 
even Christianity could only cope with in individuals, 
and some of which lay entirely out of its province to 
correct. There were even some, by contact with which 
Christian purity and simjDlicity were seriously impaired. 

Moral Evils deep-seated v/hen Christianity 
was introduced. — The lustre of an unbroken series 
of foreign conquests for 130 years (e.g. 266-133) dazzled 
men's eyes, and blinded them to the evils which were 
silently accumulating at home. To later generations, the 
period after the fall of Carthage seemed the golden age 
of Eome ; in reality (as has been well said) it was the 
"calm before a storm." The tide of luxury and immo- 
rality which set in from Greece and the East was begin- 
ning to sap and undermine the old discipline and adminis- 
trative justice for which Eome had once been famous. 
^Not only had war destroyed the flower of the population 
of Italy, but war taxes had raised prices, and impoverished 



Christian Church hi first Four Centuries 33 

the abeady tliinned middle classes to sucli a degree that 
they were either driven into the towns, or gladly sold their 
properties and worked as tenants and labourers for the 
capitalists who had bought them out. Pris6ners of war 
supplied slaves in abundance — those "living chattels" 
who could be bought like cattle, and when no longer 
serviceable, be sent off to the slave-market. And the 
number of slaves was always increasing, because slave 
labour was thought to be cheap, while the number of 
free farmers was always diminishing. In fifty years 
(between B.C. 252 and 204) the Roman citizens capable of 
bearing arms sank from 298,000 to 214,000; while Gibbon 
estimates, though the estimate is open to question, that in 
the early days of the empire the slaves numbered as many 
as the free citizens and provincials put together. Still, if 
it be true that the long wars with Carthage ruined and 
decimated the population, it is also true that the Eoman 
capitalists had their share in reducing the vigour and 
numbers of the Italians, by substituting slave labour for 
free. Latifundia perdidere Italiam. And slave labour 
not only reduces the slave to the level of a beast, but 
demoralises the society which employs it. Slave labour 
attaches discredit to free labour, and so raises a false 
standard of honour in the community, making idleness 
respectable. Slavery is the fruitful parent of vice, and 
directly fosters the more selfish and brutal side of the 
slave-o"\vner's character. Meanwhile there was rising in 
Eome itself, and probably in other large places also, that 
" city rabble," whose cry was, panem et circenses, to pacify 
whom the government deranged the commerce of Italy, by 
importing and selling wheat below cost price, and to gain 
whose support candidates for office half ruined themselves 
by extravagant gladiatorial shows. The country was left 
to the occupation of hordes of slaves and of the villicus, 

ROM. EMP. 



34 History of the Roman Empire 

or resident steward. The cities were filled with absentee 
landlords, — rich men, able and willing to purchase Inxury, 
pleasure, office, — and with a mob of artisans, tradesmen, 
and bankru];ft farmers eager to sell their vote and influence. 
What room was there here for the ancient Eoman virtues % 
Eeligion languished more and more ; education was neg 
lected ; liberty and independence ceased to be anything 
more than names. The conflict was impending which is 
always inevitable when the middle classes vanish, — -the 
conflict between those who have and those who want, be- 
tween rich and poor. If we remember, further, that there 
was now an instrument ready to the hand of any man who 
knew how to use it, in the shape of a standing army, which 
the military reforms of Marius had converted into a "pro- 
fessional machine," we shall scarcely wonder that the 
political virtues vanished amid factions, violence, intrigue, 
and riot, and that riot before long passed into open civil 
war, which desolated Italy for nearly 100 years. The re- 
sult was " the Empire." Speak as one will of the evils of 
despotism (and it is hardly possible to speak too strongly), 
the Empire certainly did secure to Italy and the world 
blessings which at that period could hardly have been 
obtained otherwise. Exhausted by internecine struggles, 
the Eoman world longed for one thing, and that one thing 
was peace. Peace and unity were secured to it, at least 
for a while, by the Empire. 

Effect of Christian Morality. — And now into this 
vast mass of wealth and oppression on the one hand, 
of degradation and misery on the other, — with its out- 
side pomp and grandeur, and the festering sore of 
slavery and corruption within, — was silently introduced a 
little germ, destined by-and-by to grow and overspread 
the earth. A little band of despised Jews, disciples of 
One who had died the death of a slave, " undertook (we 



Christian Church in first Fottr Centuries 35 

may say almost in the words of Tacitus) to convert an 
Empire, and did convert it." The victory was a slow one, 
as men measure time, for it took 300 years to gain j and 
it was gained by the strange weapons of purity, charity, 
and moral courage. It speaks well, however, for hunmn 
nature that the mere spectacle of these virtues in men who 
shrank from the unutterable depravities around them, 
and were not ashamed to help the poor and sick, nor 
afraid to face even death rather than do what they thought 
wrong, should have had so great an attraction. Doubtless 
to the wretched the good news of a happier life hereafter 
was enough in itself to arrest attention, just as the new 
doctrine of the equal rights and brotherhood of ail men 
appealed irresistibly to women and slaves ; but the mere 
proclamation of future happiness or of natural equahty 
will gain no credence of itself, unless credit attach to him 
who proclaims them. It is a question of moral influence. 
And it is to the honour of the Christian Church that, in 
a world demoralised by sensuality, idleness, and violence, 
the first apostles and preachers could insist, and insist 
successfully, on the sanctity of marriage, the duty of labour, 
the wisdom of self-restraint ; and that by these means 
they should have gathered in converts from north and 
south, and east and west, until all the Eoman world was 
(at least nominally) Christian. 

Excellent Organisation of the Christian Church. 
— But these means were not all. A society which is to 
grow and show signs of vigorous life must have organi- 
sation as well as principles ; and it remains now to sketch 
the organisation of the early Church, which enabled it, in 
the first place, to have a corjDorate existence of its own ; 
and, secondly, to wage war against the evil of the world. 
The earliest Christian communities were founded by the 
apostles, in whose absence from time to time they were 



36 History of tJie Roman Empire 

ruled by presbyters or bisliops (for the terms were at 
j&rst convertible), and below the presbyters were deacons. 
So it was in the churches of Ephesus and Philippi. At 
a very early period, however (the apostles and first teachers 
being practically missionaries, and so always moving 
from place to place), we find in the several churches a 
• single bishop or overseer (eTrto-KOTros), holding a position 
superior to that of the presbyter bishops. It matters little 
how the custom arose ; it certainly existed. And origin- 
ally popular election, in the widest sense, was the rule for 
that and other offices. There was at first no essential dis- 
tinction between clergy and laity ; all alike were members 
of the same congregation. But it is easy to see how rapidly 
a line of demarcation might arise between the more 
eminent, zealous, or religious members, and the rank and 
file. They were ordained to their ofiice to teach as v/ell 
as. rule; they admitted new members to the body by the 
initiatory rite of baptism ; they presided in the adminis- 
tration of the Lord's supper. It would have been strange 
had men in such a position not become a sacred order ; 
equally strange, in that case, had not the reverence of their 
fellow-Christians and their own esjprit de corps insensibly 
increased the distance between them and those to whom 
they ministered. Thus gradually, from mere force of cir- 
cumstances, the presbyters became a priestly caste, bishops 
became pontifi's, and the foundations were laid of a long 
series of ecclesiastical usurpations, which have ever since 
obscured and troubled Christianity. When once this 
natural reverence began to assert itself towards the natural 
leaders of the society, there was no limit practically to the 
lengths to which such reverence might lead men. Further, 
the more the churches grew in numbers and influence, the 
more difficult and necessary became the duties of their 
rulers. Men began to be Christians, not only, as at first, 



Christian Church in first Four Centuries 37 

from conviction, but from selfish interest, from love of 
novelty, or because their parents were Christians. Ad- 
mission and expulsion, therefore, from the Christian body 
became a very responsible duty. In such a body, moreover, 
dissensions, perhaps sects, would arise, needing firmness 
and authority to repress. Nothing could be more natural 
than that the Christians of the second and third centuries 
should regard their bishops and presbyters with almost 
exaggerated reverence, and that the gulf between clergy and 
laity, rulers and ruled, became impassable. It is quite in 
accordance with this that the mode of election began to 
change. A bishopric was a prize, an object of ambition ; 
some members of each church, at least, would be open to 
pressure or bribery ; the right of election, therefore, was 
gradually withdrawn from congregations and presbyters, 
and replaced by nomination at the hands of the Emperor. 
Again, congregations became united into dioceses, espe- 
cially in cities, and the dignity of bishop at once rose in 
proportion. Thus in Eome, at the beginning of the fourth 
century, there were more than forty churches in subordina- 
tion to the Bishop of Eome. Or, again, dioceses were united 
into a province, under one metropolitan, with suffragan 
bishops beneath him. Or, lastly, provinces were united 
under a single bishop, called Patriarch, standing but little 
"below the level, of the Emperor himself. The difference 
between the wealth, rank, and influence of the patriarch 
of Antioch or Alexandria in the fourth century, and the 
comparative obscurity of a bishop of the first century, will 
serve as a measure of the way in which the hierarchy of 
the Church had developed, and of the extended ideas 
which had arisen in the interval as to its sanctity and 
separateness. Contemporaneously with the rise of metro- 
politan bishops, synods began to be convened, at first in 
the East, and of bishops only; afterwards, throughout 



38 History of the Roman Empire 

Christendom of the whole body of clergy. They met 
once or twice a year, and the metropolitan presided. 
Lastly, there were general councils, meetings of bishops 
and clergy from all parts of Christendom, — instrumen- 
tal beyond anything else in defining the creed and main- 
taining the unity of the Church. The first general 
council, recognised as oecumenical, was that of Nicsea, 
in A.D. 325, in which the Emperor Constantino presided. 
It will enable us to reahse the ever increasing power of 
the clergy, if we reflect on the position of a heretic or 
schismatic who dared to stand aloof. As in the Empire, 
so in the Church, a rebel was one who had no place of 
refuge where the strong arm of authority could not reach 
him. And exactly in proportion as the triumphs of ortho- 
doxy over heterodoxy increased, and uniformity of dis- 
cipline and doctrine grew more rigid with each triumph, so 
it became less and less possible to dissent with impunity. 
Submission or excommunication w^re the only alterna- 
tives. A caste or order, wielding such powers as these, 
challenged no longer mere respect and reverence as being 
the most pious or intelligent members of a congregation, 
but would claim submission and implicit obedience as of 
right, which it had ample power to enforce. The use of 
such absolute power, indeed, was perhaps a possibility 
rather than a fact in the early centuries of the Church's 
history ; but the feelings of both clergy and laity increas- 
ingly tended in that direction from the moment when 
first the two orders were separated. And these feelings 
were further increased by the pomp, wealth, and dignity 
which the recognition of Christianity conferred on the 
ofiicials of the Church, not less than by the charitable 
uses to which they devoted their wealth, and the un- 
doubted austerity and purity of their lives. Not that 
the ceKbacy of the clergy was as yet insisted on, nor was 



Christian CJmrch in first Four Centtcries 39 

any regulation on the subject enforced during the first 
three centuries. But it was (so to speak) "in the air/' 
and was little by little defended, recommended, urged, 
and at last, in the teeth of opposition and urgent remon- 
strance, peremptorily commanded. And the feeling on 
this subject worked undoubtedly for good as well as for 
evil. If, on the one hand, the enforced celibacy of the 
clergy led to evasions, secret marriages, and other customs 
often denounced after the middle of the third century, 
on the other hand it cut a priest free from the distrac- 
tions of domestic life ; it gave him liberty to devote him- 
self and his time unfettered to the cause of God (such 
was the beautiful ideal ! ) ; it secured him a vantage 
ground in dealing with the most pressing evil of imperial 
times, the facility of divorce, and the consequent low 
tone on moral questions. 

Christianity the State Church. — The various 
powers of the priesthood were vastly enhanced when the 
civil power allied itself to the ecclesiastical, and Church 
and State were one. Heresy became a crime, and by 
Theodosius was declared a capital offence, punishable by 
the civil power ; but, as has been well said, " the Christian 
hierarchy bought the privilege of persecution at the price 
of Christian independence." Bishops became officers of 
State as well as Church; but unlike civil offices, theirs 
were gained, for the most part, not by favour and intrigue, 
but by ability and activity, and could be discharged with- 
out fear. Moreover, the Church possessed within herself 
a principle of liberty, which gradually reacted on the Em- 
pire. She professed to be, and was, independent of any 
authority upon earth. Indeed, it is difficult to realise 
without an effort, the profound effect which such a sight 
as Athanasius confronting Constantine, or Ambrose re- 
buking Theodosius, must have had on minds blinded by 



40 History of the Roman Empire 

the passive submission of generations to tlie possibility of 
successful resistance. It cannot but have increased the 
respect already inspired by the undoubted virtues and 
sacred character of the clergy. And in the West this effect 
was still further increased when the court and government 
migrated to Milan or Constantinople. The Bishop and 
clergy of Eome, eclipsed before by the splendour and con- 
sequence of the civil officers around them, and having been 
(as it had happened) men for the most part of little mark, 
rose suddenly to the rank of great functionaries. The 
bishop became " the first Christian in the first city of the 
world ;" and as the elections to bishoprics and ecclesiastical 
offices had become matters of State ; so the election to the 
Eoman bishopric, the greatest see of the West, became 
the most important State business of the West. In the 
hands of men like Innocent and Leo in the fifth century, 
and Gregory in the sixth, this grand power was utilised 
to advance the supremacy of the See of Eome over 
Western Christendom. It may be conceded that the 
effect on the Church herself was not wholly good ; that 
as fashion or indifference, or timidity, brought in crowds 
of converts from the palace or the street, human passions 
and lower motives — ambition, jealousy, tyranny — began to 
influence the ever growing body, and that the simple 
moral standard of the earlier Church was insensibly 
lowered, and in a measure replaced by quite another 
standard, orthodoxy. Il^either, however, was it wholly bad. 
For the general tone of society was raised. Christian 
virtues were at least made possible to all, and a new and 
noble career thrown open to those who would adopt it. 
JSTor, indeed, is it probable that without this complete 
and vigorous organisation the Christian religion could 
have stood its ground during the succeeding times of dis- 
aster and violence — when it often happened that the 



Christian Church in first Four Centuries ^1 

Christian bishop stood firmly at his post while the Eoman 
officials fled, and when the clergy alone seemed undaunted 
by the surging barbarism around them. 

Lastly, it will aid us to realise the vast benefits which 
the Christian Church conferred upon the Eoman Empire, 
if we attempt to imagine what that Empire would have 
been without it — rotten with immorality, and debased by 
slavery, overrun by swarms of barbarians, and with no 
influence at hand, ubiquitous and powerful, to check 
brutality, to soften cruelty, to assimilate conflicting races, 
to maintain religion, to save civilisation. That and 
nothing less is the debt of gratitude which Europe owes 
to the early Churcli. 



CHAPTER III, 

THE BARBARIANS ON THE FRONTIER. 
CENT. IV. 

Romans and Barbarians from the same Stock. 

— Around the miglity Empire, united and consolidated by 
the eJBTorts of 400 years, and it might have seemed invul- 
nerable, lay, north and east, a vast swarm of barbarous 
nations, whom pressure from behind was gradually thrust- 
ing up to and over the frontiers. It would have seemed 
an insult to have told Aurelius or Decius that the bar- 
barians, against whom they were defending the Empire, 
were kinsmen of their own, sprang from the same ances- 
tors. And yet it would have been strictly true. The 
greater part of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, and 
nearly all the barbarians who invaded that Empire, from 
the Persians in the south-east to Saxons in the north- 
west, were, in fact, without knowing it, scions of the same 
stock. They nearly all belonged to the Aryan family. 

Who were the Aryans ? — ^We have, it is true, no 
historical proof as to when, or even where the original 
Aryans lived before their dispersion from the earliest 
home of the race ; for they lived before history (even on 
rocks and monuments) was written, and they appear to 
have led a nomad life, in which all desire or power to 
write history is unknown. Yet the comparative study of 



The Barbarians on tne Frontier 43 

languages tends to the conclusion, that in prehistoric 
times there must have been such a people, and that their 
probable home was in Central Asia, to the east and 
north of the Caspian Sea. The evidence of language 
shows that this people must have been the progenitors 
of Hindoos, and Persians, and Greeks, and Italians, 
and Germans ; the joint evidence of language, law, and 
traditional customs shows that even in primeval times, 
before they began their wanderings southward and west- 
ward, they were at least partly civilised, and knew how 
to build, and plough, and grind corn — that they had family 
life, and something like government and religious ideas. 
The name itself is a Sanskrit word, meaning " noble," " of 
good family ;" it appears in the inscriptions of Darius 
Hystaspis, who styles himself an Aryan, as w^ell as in the 
modern name of Persia, Iran. It can even be traced with 
some probability westward, in the track of the Aryan 
migrations, though with decreasing frequency, so far as 
Thrace, the old name of which is said to have been Arya, 
and the Vistula, where was a German tribe called Arii. 
The theory is that, as this people grew and multiplied, a 
migration became necessary, and that successive waves or 
swarms of population moved southwards and westwards, 
relieving the pressure on their brethren whom they left be- 
hind ; and that in the course of generations they conquered 
or peopled Southern and Western Asia and Europe — con- 
quered if it was already occupied, peopled if it was empty. 
Semitic and Turanian Races. — There were other 
races also, with whom at various times and in different 
places they came in contact, Semitic and Turanian, and 
with whom here and there they combined. The former 
comprised Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs; the latter aU 
those scattered peoples, both in Europe and Asia, which 
were neither Aryan nor Semitic, such as Basques, Einns^ 



44 History of the Roman Empire 

Lapps, Huns, Turks, and the like. In Europe, they were 
driven b)^ the Aryans into the remoter corners. In Asia, 
they encircled them with a vast though widely-scattered 
ring of populations, which constantly encroached on their 
grazing and hunting grounds, and in the end drove them 
headlong upon the Roman Empire. 

Aryan Migrations — Kelts — Teutons — Slaves. — 
The Aryan migrations began before the beginnings of his- 
tory, and appear to have taken a twofold direction, south- 
ward and westward. Thus separated from the first, and 
gradually changed in appearance and customs by the in- 
fluence of climate and mixture with other races, the two 
great branches diverged so far as to lose almost all vestige 
of relationship. The southern portion were the fore- 
fathers of the Hindoos and Persians, and occupied littte 
by httle Hindostan and all the country lying between 
India and the Euphrates; while the western branch 
gradually moved into Europe by way of Southern Russia, 
or the Black Sea, wave after wave, tribe after tribe, until 
in the course of perhajDS centuries the whole Continent 
was occupied by them and their descendants. The first 
wave of Aryan emigrants which broke over Europe, and 
swept before them certain non- Aryan tribes already settled 
there, was the Kelts. Of this there can be little doubt ; 
for Gaul and Britain, and parts of Spain and Italy, were 
inhabited by Kelts when authentic history begins ; and 
the records of history describe the way in which they in- 
vaded and conquered, or were themselves conquered, 
absorbed, or pushed westwards by later Aryan tribes. 
Just as the Kelts pushed on the non- Aryan tribes in front 
of them, so the second Aryan wave of Teutons — the fore- 
fathers of Germans, and English, and Scandinavians — 
pressed in turn upon the Kelts and drove them west- 
wards j so that partly from this cause, partly from having 



The Barbarians on the Frontier 45 

been absorbed in and transformed by the Eoman Em- 
pire, pure Kelts and tbe Keltic tongue are now found 
only in Brittany and parts of Great Britain. And, fur- 
ther, as tbe Aryan Kelts bad pushed the non- Aryan 
Basques iajto a corner of Spain and Gaul, so the Aryan 
Teutons in Scandinavia found a non- Aryan population in 
their way, the Finns and Lapps, whom they gradually 
dispossessed and drove to the north. The last wave of 
Aryans which moved westwards from Asia was the 
Slaves and Lithuanians, who occupied the east and north- 
east of Europe, — the most numerous and hitherto least 
important of all the intruding peoples. 

Relations between Empire and Barbarians — 
Cent. L-IY. — The history of these Aryan nations is the 
history of Europe, and its most important section is the 
history of Eome. For all previous empires were merely 
preludes to the Eoman; almost all later kingdoms were 
outgrowths from it. And of this marvellous history there 
is, perhaps, no epoch of deeper interest than that in which 
the elder Aryan population, the civilised Christian Em- 
pire, was for the first time brought face to face with the 
younger and less civilised peoples of its own family, and 
forced to fight for bare existence. All along the frontier 
of the Ehine and Danube, in the fourth century, lay tribe 
after tribe of Aryan wanderers, eager to ravage the fertile 
lands and pillage the rich inhabitants of Greece, and Italy, 
and Gaul ; while on the Euphrates another Aryan people, 
the Persians, had defeated the old enemies of Eome, the 
Turanian Parthians, and founded an empire destined to 
last for 400 years (a.d. 226). Already the pressure in 
the far north-east of Slaves and Turanians, Hims and 
Alans, had driven in Ostrogoths upon Visigoths, and 
Gepidae upon Quadi and Marcomanni. Already urged 
by that pressure, and nothing loth, the Daci had in 



46 History of tlie Roman Empire 

Domitian's reign (a.d. 81), burst across the Danube and 
ravaged Moesia. The Marcomanni and Quadi, in Aure- 
lius's reign, had desolated Ehoetia and IlToricum (a.d. 167). 
The new Persian dynasty of the Sassanidse had signalised 
its victory over the Parthians (a.d. 226) by aggressions 
upon Eome, and a defeat of Alex. Severus (a.d. 232). 
The short reign of Decius (a.d. 249-251) had been one 
long struggle against Goths, on the Danube and in Moesia, 
with varying success; while Valerian (a.d. 253-260), 
whose armies were scarcely able to make head against in- 
roads of Pranks in Gaul and Spain, and Alemanni even 
in Italy, and Goths in Asia Minor, was himself defeated 
and taken prisoner by Sapor the Persian, in a battle near 
Edessa. Within fifteen years (a.d. 268-284) formidable 
invasions of Goths, Alemanni, Alani, Pranks, and Sar- 
matians, in Moesia, Italy, Asia Minor, Gaul, and Illyricum, 
bore witness to the growing weakness of the Empire, and 
the military energy of the barbarians. The immediate 
danger was arrested, though only for a time, by the 
abilities of Claudius (a.d. 268), Aurelian (a.d. 270), and 
Probus (a.d. 276) ; while the internal reforms of Dio- 
cletian and Constantine helped to secure for the Empire a 
new, if a short lease of life. Prom the time of Diocletian 
(a.d. 285) to the death of Theodosius (a.d. 395), Eome 
preserved her frontiers and her unity intact. 

Tribes lying on Roman Frontiers. — The order of 
facts in the history of the barbarian invasions of the Em- 
pire depends so much on the position of the barbarians 
themselves upon the frontiers, that it will be well to de- 
scribe exactly their relative situations along the Danube 
and Ehine at the end of the fourth century. Beginning 
from the Euxine, and running the eye along the line of 
the above rivers, there will be seen a bewildering succes- 
sion of unfamiliar names, from which, however, seven 



The Barbarians 07i the Frontier 47" 

stand out as of prominent importance, viz., Goths, Van- 
dals, Burgundians, Franks, Saxons, Lombards, and Huns. 
The first six belong to the Teutonic branch of the Aryan 
family ; the seventh to the Ugrian or Finnish branch of 
the Turanian; and as the condition of the Gothic and 
.Vandal tribes at the time above mentioned depended in a 
great measure on the power of the Huns, it will be well 
to begin with the Hunnish Empire, and give a brief 
sketch of its rise and history. 

Huns. — The vast plain of Europe lying between the 
Ural Mountains and the Volga, the Danube, the Ehine, and 
the Baltic, — the scene of the great movements of the fourth 
.and fifth centuries, — was unequally divided between 
tribes of Teutonic and tribes of Finnish descent, between 
Aryans and Turanians. Foremost among the latter was 
the confederation of the Huns. It had been seated since 
'the second century on the Volga and the slopes of the 
Ural, and probably comprised Turkish races in the East, 
Finnish races in the West, and, dominating all, a great 
Mongol tribe. In physiognomy, customs, and character, 
they differed wholly (according to contemporary writers) 
from the Aryans of the West. They lived by theft, by 
hunting, by the produce of their flocks. In ferocity they' 
surpassed any barbarians of whom Roman soldiers had 
had experience, while to the civilised eye their ugliness 
was revoltiug. Of the habits of civilised life they 
were utterly ignorant, even of the use of fire for cook- 
ing, and of covered huts. Their days were spent 
almost whoUy on horseback. Their chief weapon of 
offence was bone-tipped arrows. Eeligion, or form of 
worship, it is said, was unknown. Such is the account 
of Ammianus MarceUinus, written about a.d. 375; and 
making all allowances for the passionate language of 
hatred and fear, it is clear they were a very terrible foe 



48 History of the Roman Empire 

to face, with, nothing to lose by defeat but tlieir lives' 
and everything to gain by success. But contact with 
more civilised tribes modified their customs, if not their 
characters, and they quickly learned to build villages and 
live in huts, and adopt some of the habits of civilised life. 
The empire of the confederation gradually spread. In 
A.D. 374 the Huns fell on the Alani, Turanians like them- 
selves, and destroyed or absorbed them. The next victims 
were the Goths of Ermanaric's Empire. The Ostrogoths 
were absorbed into the ranks of the victors, the Gepidae 
pushed north, the Visigoths west and south; and by the 
end of the century the confederates had established a vast 
empire reaching from the Volga to the Theiss, and from 
the Black Sea nearly to the Baltic, — an empire before 
which weaker tribes were forced in upon the territories of 
the Eomau Empire, and in the minds of whose leaders 
was presently developed the ambitious idea of sharing the 
world with Eome. We shall see hereafter, how in Attila 
this idea grew into a dream of universal dominion. 

The Teutonic Races. — The tribes that suffered from 
the pressure of the Hunnish confederation were of a differ- 
ent and more civilised type. The sketch of the Germans 
given by Tacitus was written with a purpose, and is 
therefore not entirely trustworthy; but their salient charac- 
teristics described by him and attested by other writers, 
are both remarkable and credible. Independent, chaste, 
faithful, warlike, hospitable, yet fierce and often cruel, 
the Teutons of those days were not very unlike the 
Teutons of these. They were marked by blue eyes, light 
hair, and large frames. In the day of battle, squadrons 
and battalions fought side by side, drawn from the same 
families and clan. They showed a deep reverence for 
women (being almost the only barbarians content with 
one wife), and a genuine if somewhat mystical religious 



The Barbarians on the Frontier 49 

feeling. Tlieir government was popular, for' wliile on 
minor matters the chiefs deliberated alone, the whole 
tribe debated in a body questions of greater moment. 
Slaves were treated with far more consideration than in 
the civilised Empire, and to strike or bind them was as 
rare as it was thought dishonourable. 

The Goths. — The first nation that suffered from the 
encroachments of the Huns was the Goths, of all the 
Teutonic tribes the largest and most important. In the 
earliest historic times their home appears to have been 
Scandinavia and the shores of the Baltic, which they pro- 
bably abandoned in consequence of intestine struggles. 
From the shores of the Baltic to the shores of the Euxine 
they gradually made their way through the midst of the 
Slaves, as far as the valley of the Dnieper, the direc- 
tion of their wanderings being probably determined by 
the position and relative strength of other tribes. At 
any rate they settled on the Dnieper, the Ostrogoths to 
the east, the Visigoths to the west, and the Gepidse to 
the north; and there they waxed in power and numbers 
until their Empire reached almost to the Baltic, and 
under Ermanaric included nearly all South Eussia, Lithu- 
ania, Courland, Poland, and part of Germany. But the 
Empire had been won by force of arms, and was held 
together by no tie but force. So when the Huns were 
invited by the Roxolani, a tribe subject to the Ostro- 
goths, to come and help them, and the invitation, was 
accepted, the Gothic Empire fell to pieces at once. After 
a few fruitless struggles, the Ostrogoths submitted, and 
were incorporated for a while in the Hunnish Confedera- 
tion, while the Visigoths fled before the storm to take 
refuge behind the Pruth. Even here, however, they did 
not feel safe. The pagan minority went off under Atha- 
naric into the Carpathian Mountains, while at the sugges- 

ROM. EMP. D 



50 History of the Roman Empire 

tion of Bishop Ulfilas, who had converted a large part of 
the nation, the Christian majority resolved to place the 
Danube between themselves and their dreaded foes, and 
to offer their services to the Eoman Emperor. The offer 
was made and refused, unless they would consent to adopt 
certain definite views regarding the second person in the 
Trinity, which owed their origin to Arius, a Presbyter of 
Alexandria (about a.d. 320), and were widely held in the 
Eastern part of the Empire. Time pressed. The hves of 
men and the honour of women were at stake. The con- 
cession, it might be thought, was a small one. So Ulfilas 
yielded; and the Visigothic nation, now become Arian, 
crossed the river with arms in their hands. They crossed 
as friends. But the treachery, licentiousness, and avarice 
of the Eoman officials charged with the duty of receiving 
and settling them, infuriated the only half-civilised bar- 
barians, who took a fearful revenge. Falling suddenly 
on the defenceless province of Msesia, and ravaging far 
and near, they defeated and slew the Emperor Yalens in 
a pitched battle at Adrianople (a.d. 378), and overran the 
whole country between the Euxine, -^gean, and Adriatic 
for nearly a year. Indeed the defeat was more fatal to 
the Empire than Cannse had been to the Eepublic, The 
loss from the latter, both of men and prestige, was speedily 
repaired: while after Adrianople the Empire was never 
again wholly freed from barbarians. Theodosius, it is 
true, by mingled firmness and dij^lomacy, succeeded in 
confining the Visigoths within definite limits, hut it loas 
south of the Danube; and after his death, a very few years 
of the feeble rule of his sons left Alaric, or men like 
Alaric, practically masters of the Empire. 

The Vandals. — Erom the Goths we pass to the 
Vandals, divided also into two nations, the Vandali proper 
and the Vandali Silingi, though apparently never wholly 



The Barbarians on the Frontier 5 1 

separated, as were tlie Ostrogoths and Visigoths. Their 
name in history has suffered a strange misfortune, having 
become a synonym for all that is harbarous and destruc- 
tive : whereas in reality they are said to have been among 
the noblest and least ferocious of the barbarians, given 
to commerce and agriculture, until in their case, as in that 
of the Goths, the perfidy of the Eoman government exas- 
perated and called out the fiercer elements of the bar- 
barian character. Their earhest settlement in Europe was 
apparently between the rivers Elbe and Vistula; from 
whence they were dislodged by the Lombards about the 
Christian era. By the year a.d. 150 they had wandered 
as far south as Bohemia, and probably formed part of the 
great confederation which for thirteen years taxed the 
energy and resources of Aurelius to resist (a.d. 167-180). 
In the reign of Probus they were on the Danube (a.d. 
276-282) and the Theiss, but coming in contact with the 
Visigoths, and being defeated by them, begged and 
received permission from Constantino to settle in Pan- 
nonia. There they remained for seventy years, and were 
converted to Christianity, not moving thence until famine 
compelled them, like so many others, to join the great 
vfestward migration of 406 into Gaul. 

The Burgundians were like the Vandals in their 
aptness for civilised and commercial life; unlike them in 
that they wandered but comparatively a little way from 
their earliest home. About the middle of the fourth 
century they were seated on both sides of the Elbe; at 
the end of it on the Main. In a.d. 406 they joined in the 
migration of the Vandals into Gaul, where they found a 
permanent home on the banks of the Ehone and Saone, 
and about the middle of the century embraced with eager 
zeal the rehgion of the Eomans, whose God alone seemed 
able to save them from the terrible Huns. 



52 History of the Roman Empire 

The Franks belonged to the Low Dutch branch 
of the Teutonic races, as it is called — that is, the branch 
which occupied the Lowlands of Germany between the 
Ehine and the shores of the Baltic. They were in reality 
a confederation of eight tribes, the Chauci, Sicambri, 
Attuarii, Bructeri, Chamavi, Catti, Salii, and Cherusci, 
who appear to have taken the name of Franci or " Free- 
men" about the middle of the third century, and to have 
possessed the greater part of Westphalia, Hanover, and 
the Netherlands. Many of these tribes had fought bravely 
against Drusus (e.g. 12-9), and Germanicus (a.d. 15, 16); 
and the Confederation had maintained a long struggle 
against the Eoman Empire in the times of Valerian (a.d. 
256), Probus (a.d. 277), and Julian (a.d. 356-9). At 
the end of the fourth and beginning ot the fifth century 
they began that movement towards the west and south, 
which was the first step in the formation of their after- 
wards mighty Empire. 

The Saxons, low Dutch lite their neighbours the 
Franks, occupied for centuries the country lying between 
the Ems and the Oder, forming the Eastern frontier of 
the Frankish kingdom. Their name still survives in the 
kingdom of the German Empire called Saxony, a very 
different district, it must be remembered, from the Saxonia 
of Eoman and Frank times. They were divided into 
three tribes, Ostphalians, Westphalians, and Angarians. 
Lying as they did along the shores of two seas, and in a 
barren country of forests, moors, and morasses, but inter- 
sected by large rivers falling into those seas, it is not sur- 
prising that they were a seafaring rather than an agricul- 
tural or pastoral people. No shore was safe from their 
depredations. In the reign of Valentinian (a.d. 371), the 
maritime provinces of Gaul suffered grievously from their 
attacks; and scarcely a century later the withdrawal of 



The Barbarians on the Frontier 53 

the Eoman forces in Britain enabled tliem to find another 
and larger outlet for their surplus population, and in 
company with Angles and other cognate tribes to lay the 
first foundations of what was afterwards the kingdom of 
England. 

The Lombards. — ^To the East of Franks and Saxons 
lay a tribe, the Langobardi or Lombards, whom Tacitus 
speaks of as scanty in numbers, but of extraordinary 
valour. Certainly their influence on the course of history 
was out of all proportion to their importance among the 
German tribes. When first we hear of them about the 
time of Augustus, it was as with so many other Teutonic 
tribes in the district between the Elbe and the Oder, and 
probably, therefore, allied with or subject to the Saxons. 
They gradually moved or were driven southwards, until 
at the end of the fourth century they were in the centre of 
Europe, and at the beginning of the sixth on the Danube, 
preparatory to their descent some fifty years later into 
Italy. 

There were, of course, other tribes and confederations, 
many and various, lying between the Volga, the Danube, 
the Ehine, and the Baltic, at the end of the fourth century, 
besides the seven thus briefly described. But few if any 
were mixed up with Eoman history in so special a way 
as these : none produced more remarkable men, or affected 
so largely the subsequent course of events : none left such 
marked traces of their influence in Italy, Spain, France, 
and England. 

Summary of First Three Chapters. — Briefly to 
sum up the contents of the first three chapters, we see two 
vast groups of Aryan populations on either side of the 
Danube and the Ehine gradually approach, touch, and 
at last clash with one another along the whole line of 
those rivers. One group had probably been settled in 



54 History of the Roman Empire 

its first home before a part of tlie other even Ibegan its 
wanderings. One was now civilised and Christian; the 
other semi-civilised or barbarous, and for the most part 
pagan. One group was bound together in the equalising 
grasp of a centralised despotism; the other shifting and 
mobile as the waves of the sea, or the sand of the shore, 
with no bond of cohesion beyond occasionally common 
interests and similar customs. At the moment when this 
history begins, they had already touched, and at points 
the frontier had been passed by the barbarians. The 
crisis was approaching. And for all men of foresight, 
who could appreciate the danger, it must have been an 
anxious question whether the Empire, with its vast frontier 
line, would be able, in spite of centralised power, adminis- 
trative unity, and disciplined armies, to make head against 
the dimly looming swarms of warriors from behind the 
Danube, whose numbers seemed to increase with every 
year. Nor \vere they more than vaguely conscious of the 
fatal weakness within the Empire, which made the battle, 
as far as they were concerned, a lost one before it began. 








tj^id^c. 



CENTRAL EUROPE 

AND THE FRONTIERS 



ROMAN EMPIRE 




[bom kmv] 



Rjvmfftoi 1 ndin Oxioi'd &. iantbi idat 



CHAPTER IV, 

CHURCH AND STATE IN CONSTANTINOPLE, 
EUTROPIUS, AND CHRYSOSTOM. 

Death of Theodosius — a.d. 395. — The Emperoi 
TheodTDsius the Great died on January 17, 395, On Ms 
death-bed he dictated a will, proclaiming a general am- 
nesty, and entrusting the care of his sons, Arcadius and 
Honorius, to Stilicho the Yandal, who had married his 
niece Serena. Thus passed away the last great Caesar, 
too soon for the happiness of the world. After his death 
the Western Empire went through a series of misfortunes, 
till it fell wholly into barbarian hands ; while the fate of 
the East, if less tragic, was hardly less sad. The succes- 
sors of Theodosius at Constantinople were, with few ex- 
ceptions, mere cyphers in the hands of wives or favourites; 
and their history is little but the barren record of in- 
trigues, by which those favourites won or lost their 
power. Of this state of things the first ten years of 
Arcadius' reign are an excellent instance; when the 
greedy ambition of a Eufinus or a Eutropius, and the im- 
periousness of a Eudoxia threw an empire into confusion, 
and when, not for the first or last time, the dauntless self- 
sacrifice of a priest, such as Chrysostom, was the one ray 
of light in the surrounding darkness. 

Sons of Theodosius. — The gap which was left in 



56 History of the Rommi Empire * 

the political world by tlie death, of Theodosius might well 
have seemed irreparable. A man of energy and expe- 
rience was replaced by two feeble and ignorant boys, 
unworthy sons of a noble father. Arcadius, the elder, 
who inherited the Eastern Empire, was only eighteen; 
Honorius was but eleven. The elder was weakly in body 
and in mind — a character both dull and timid, which had 
been spoiled by the flatteries of a court. The younger, 
more attractive, yet capricious and uncertain, was fiercely 
jealous of the elder brother, to whom he had been sub- 
ordinated from infancy, and for whose slights he longed 
to take vengeance. Each was ruled by a will stronger 
than his own ; Honorius by Stilicho, Arcadius by Eufinus 
the Gaul ; and the hostility of the Ministers aggravated 
the jealousy of the Emperors. The two men were 
singularly unlike. Both were intelligent and well edu- 
cated; but Stilicho possessed the best qualities of the 
soldier, Eufinus the worst vices of the diplomatist. Each 
was ambitious, but an a difierent way; Eufinus aimed at 
power for his own advancement, Stilicho merged his per- 
sonal interests in devotion to the State. Though a Van- 
dal by birth, he was a Eoman at heart, and valued the 
historic glories of his adopted country far more deeply 
than did the degenerate Italians, who despised him. He 
had the rare merit of justice, which won for him the dis- 
like of many, the respect of a few. Eufinus, on the other 
hand, possessed graces which Stilicho lacked. His wit and 
good taste, his versatility and complaisance ensured him 
a welcome in all societies, even in the highest ; but at the 
core he was selfish, insincere, and unscrupulous. Such an 
one, moreover, makes enemies of men, whom in his up- 
ward course he outstrips, ofi'ends, or ruins ; and when 
Eufinus, blinded by ambition, sought to marry his daugh- 
ter to Arcadius, and to become himself an Emperor's 



Church and State in Constantinople 57 

colleague, these enemies combined to ruin him. By a 
stratagem of Eutropius, to which he was himself a party, 
the Emperor was married to Eudoxia the Erankj and 
Eufinus was murdered at the very feet of Arcadius during 
a military review. 

Rise of Eutropius. — The ringleader of these enemies 
was Eutropius, the Chamberlain, who stepped into his 
fallen rival's j)lace, and for four years disputed with the 
Empress the direction of the Emperor and the Empire. 
He was the son of slave parents, and born in Armenia. 
He was himself more than once sold as a slave ; and being 
turned out of doors by an elegant and capricious mistress, 
because he was no longer young, was saved from starva- 
tion by a kind-hearted officer, who enrolled him among 
the slaves of the palace. There his intelligence and ap- 
parent piety soon attracted observation, especially that of 
Theodosius, who ere long attached him to his own person, 
and often sent him on confidential embassies. Thus the 
slave's fortune was made. But previous hardships had 
spoiled his temper and ruined his character. He was 
greedy, cunning, bitter; and hated the world that had 
ill used him. Eor one person, and one only, had he any 
tenderness in his heart, and that was his sister. 

Allies of Eutropius. — It is a curious illustration of 
the difference of sentiment between East and West, that 
the custom of having effeminate slaves about the house- 
hold, which was regarded with horror in Italy, was thought 
proper and fashionable in Constantinople. Hence the 
rise of Eutroj)ius to be the Emperor's Chamberlain and 
confidante was viewed with disgust in Eome, but in the 
East thought worth only a jest or a passing smile. J^or 
was this all. l!^ot only was the eunuch's high position 
looked on as an amusing freak of fortune, rather than 2 
portent, but when he became the minister of Arcadius, 



58 History of the Roman Empire 

and his rival Rufinus was dead, tlien in every honseliold 
througliont the East there were numerous members who 
felt a sort of pride in Eutropius' elevation, and were eager 
to become agents or spies in his interest. Woe to the 
master who during those four years dared in his slave's 
presence to hint dissatisfaction with the course of affairs. 
It was at once reported at headquarters. In the palace, 
indeed, the chamberlain was wise enough to dissemble, and 
to gild as far as possible the imperial fetters, though his 
power was none the less absolute. Little by little Arca- 
dius was isolated from his court, his officers, and even his 
wife, until his thoughts and daily life, and very pleasures 
were dictated by Eutropius. But the eunuch was not 
satisfied with supremacy. He knew that he, too, must 
have enemies, and that if he would be secure he must be 
feared — must have, in short, the means at hand for striking 
a rapid and decisive blow. His enemies, therefore, must 
not be able to escape him, either by flight or by taking 
sanctuary in a church j and this reason it was which led 
to the famous law of a.d. 397, which caused so much 
sensation among the clergy. 

Right of Asykim — a.d. 397. — The right of asylum, 
of taking shelter in a sanctuary from the pursuit of jus- 
tice, was a pagan custom, which in the latter days of the 
Bepublic had fallen into discredit, owing to its abuse ; 
but with Christianity it once more revived. Christian 
churches succeeded to Pagan temples as places of refuge 
for criminals, with the difference, that the superior sanc- 
tity attaching to the Christian clergy made the asylum 
more secure than it had been before, while the abuses 
were as great as ever. Debtors, bankrupts, criminals of 
all kinds fled for once in their lives to the interior of a 
church to evade justice, and so escaped. In September, 
however, an imperial decree was issued, inspired by Eutro- 



Church and State in Constantinople 59 

piuSj wliich practically, though, not verbally, withdrew 
the right, especially from debtors and " State criminals j" 
and State criminals were defined to be those who con- 
spired, not only against the Emperor and his family, but 
also against his ministers and officers, including, of course, 
Eutropius. The punishment was death, confiscation of 
property, and outlawry of children. "Well might the 
great man think himself secure with such a weapon in his 
hands ; and the irony of fortune was complete, when three 
years later he sought and found safety for a while in that 
very right of asylum which his own law had denied to 
others ! 

Chrysostom : Life atAntioch — a.d. 397-8. — The 
next year (a.d. 398) brought upon the scene another actor 
whose public life was a perpetual conflict with both 
Eutropius and the Empress. This was John of Antioch, 
the Golden-Mouthed (Chrysostom), afterwards archbishop 
of Constantinople. He was at this time fifty years old. 
Though a Christian born, he had been a favourite pupil of 
the Pagan Libanius, and was so distinguished for his im- 
petuous flow of ideas and language, that his teacher looked 
to him as a possible successor. But the passion of asceti- 
cism had arisen in his, as in so many hearts, and led him 
to court solitude, first in his home, then in a convent, then 
in the desert : and to practise such fasting and watching as 
permanently injured his health. From the desert he 
returned suddenly to Antioch, for he was almost too con- 
scious of his own powers, and was ordained deacon and 
priest. Like, yet far greater than, Savonarola at Florence, 
he became a distinct "power" in the state. He drew 
the wealthy and the educated to listen to him, no less 
than the poor and the ignorant, — the sinner no less than 
the saint. And among these casual hearers, as it hap- 
pened, had been Eutropius. 



6o History of the Roman Empire 

Death of Nectarius — a,d. 397. — On September 17, 
397, JS'ectarius died, who for sixteen years liad been arch- 
bisbop of Constantinople. A fierce struggle at once arose 
as to his successor, for the archbishopric was a post of 
growing importance, involving great influence in matters 
of both church and state. The election was in the hands 
of the people and clergy of the city, and of the " Honorati," 
who had filled high ofi&ces of state, and the electors were 
canvassed and unblushingly bribed by the various candi- 
dates and their friends. The clergy were anxious to secure 
the prize for one of themselves ; but there was an in- 
fluence at work, which bade fair to overpower all resist- 
ance, and to seat an outsider on the archiepiscopal throne. 
It happened that a number of foreign bishops were assem- 
bled at Constantinople, when l!^ectarius died. It hap- 
pened also, that Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, was 
one of them ; and being anxious, for purposes of his own, 
to forward the promotion of a certain Isidore, presbyter of 
Alexandria, he secured the interest of a majority of the 
bishops, who claimed to direct or control the electors in 
their choice. Isidore was suspected of being in possession 
of a highly compromising letter of Theophilus, which he 
had written in du^^licate during the struggle between the 
Christian Theodosius and the Pagan Maximus (a.d. 394), 
and given to Isidore to deliver to whichever of the two 
might be victorious. Theodosius was victor, and Isidore 
handed him one of the letters of congratulation ; the 
other, he said, had been stolen from him, though he was 
suspected of having reserved it for his own use in the 
future. Hence the anxiety of Theophilus to shut his 
mouth by a golden bribe; while such an appointment 
would, at the same time, present himself in the light of 
patron of the see of Constantinople, and therefore superior 
to its archbishop j for Theophilus was as ambitious as he 



Church and State in Constantinople 6i 

was unscrupulous, and not more unscrupulous than he was 
learned and able. Learning, however, with him was only 
a means towards gratifying ambition, — abilit}'' a means of 
evading dangers or realising wishes. 

Butropius appoints Chrysostom. — But amid all 
the turmoil of canvassing, one part of the electors, the 
people, became weary of the struggle, and resolved that 
the nomination should be left unreservedly to the Emperor. 
Of course, it was Eutropius who made it. He remem- 
bered the wonderful preacher whom he had once heard at 
Antioch, and determined that he was the man to be 
appointed. It was no easy task, however. Once already 
he had declined a bishopric ; and even if Ms scruples were 
overcome, would Antioch consent to part with him or 
Constantinople to receive him? Secrecy and rapidity 
were alike essential to success. Orders were accordingly 
sent to the Count of the East, resident at Antioch, to 
secure and despatch Chrysostom at once under safe guard 
to the capital. The order was obeyed. Chrysostom was 
invited by the Count to a conference outside the city, — 
was then seized, and committed to a mihtary escort with- 
out a word of explanation, and finally arrived at Con- 
stantinople more like a criminal for trial than an arch- 
bishop designate. His arrival was like the springing of a 
mine beneath the feet of the bishops" and clergy, while the 
people applauded the unexpected choice. The bishops, 
indeed, protested against this interference with freedom 
of election, while Theophilus even refused to ordain 
Chrysostom, But a whisper from Eutropius led him to 
see matters in a different light, and the episcopal opposi- 
tion could be safely disregarded. Chrysostom was or- 
dained by Theophilus, and enthroned as archbishop on 
February 2, a.d. 398. 

Character of Chrysostom. — But the character of 



62 History of the Roman Empire 

the arclibisliop was not such as to be an element of peace 
in the heated pohtical atmosphere of the capital. With all 
his knowledge and genius, his simplicity and unselfishness, 
his eloquence and energy, Chrysostom was imperious and 
somewhat impracticable, — more apt to drive than to per- 
suade men to what ne himself thought right. Hib tender- 
ness for the poor was almost exaggerated into intolerance 
of the rich. In such a position as his, it was not wise to 
reverse all at once the hospitable customs of his predeces- 
sor, or to cut down as much as possible the expenditure of 
his household; and certainly it was not prudent to isolate 
himself (even at meals) from all society. Not only did 
he thereby lose some opportunity of influence for good 
over the upper classes, but, in attempting to force his 
clergy to conform to his example, forfeited much of their 
loyalty and attachment to himself. His efforts at reform 
were at once despotic and premature. JSTor was he sparing 
of the frivolities of the court, against which he protested, 
at first privately and in writing, then openly and in public. 
What wonder if courtiers, ladies, clergy, and the less strict 
and honourable of all classes, ere long combined against 
the self-opinionated churchman, who wished, as it seemed, 
to set everybody right, and to reverse all that had been 
usual under the beloved IS^ectarius. 

Hatred of Butropius — a.d. 399. — If Chrysostom 
was disliked, he was also respected. But towards Eutro- 
pius there was no feeling, save mingled hatred and con- 
tempt ; and in a.d. 399 a variety of circumstances united 
against the minister all his isolated enemies, and gave 
them the opportunity of striking a blow. He had been 
so unwise as to restrict still further the right of asylum ; 
a step which arrayed against him all the clergy, with 
Chrysostom at their head. His enemies were overjoyed 
at the good fortune, which gave them so firm and power- 



Church and State in Constantinople 63 

M an ally j still more so, when the Empress, with a 
woman's rapid insight, threw her weight into the scale, 
made overtures of alliance to the archbishop, and gave 
proofs of her sincerity by an excessive though short-lived 
devotion. Eutropius, however, was blind to his danger, 
and even assumed the consulship, — a usurpation which 
seemed only ludicrous to the East, but sent a thrill of 
indignation throughout the West. It seemed a revolting 
sacrilege, that a eunuch and a slave should hold the oldest 
and grandest historic office of the Eoman world. 

Quarrel between Eutropius and the Empress. 
— One act of supreme insolence sealed his fate. Conscious 
at last of the tide of opposition and hatred rising around 
him, he lost the equanimity which had characterised him. 
Being aware of the Empress' intrigues with Chrysostom, 
and meeting her one day accidentally in the palace, he 
ventured to upbraid h^r with ingratitude, and to threaten, 
that he who had raised her to the tln?one could also banish 
her from it. The barbarian spirit rose within her. Motion- 
ing Eutropius aside, she rushed to her apartments, caughc 
up her two little daughters in her arms, and hastened to 
the Emperor's presence. Eor some minutes indignation 
choked her utterance, while the children, frightened by 
their mother's emotion, filled the palace with cries and 
sobs. At last she mastered her passion sufficiently to 
make the terrified Arcadius understand what had happened, 
and the outrage she, his Empress, had suffered at the hands 
of a slave ! Even the Emperor was roused by" such an 
insult. Eutropius was immediately summoned to his 
presence, and before he had time to defend himself, or 
even realise the state of affairs, heard himself condemned 
to disgrace and degradation. He was stripped of all his 
offices, his property was confiscated, and he was bidden to 
leave the palace at once. Eutropius did not deceive him- 



64 History of the Roman Empire 

self as to tlie extent of tlie catastrophe. He knew that 
this was ruin. He passed rapidly through the halls and 
chambers where only an hour before his smile had meant 
fortune, and his frown destruction, and leaving the palace 
by a private door hastened to the great church, not far 
distant, pursued, at Eudoxia's orders, by some soldiers and 
palace servants. At the door he stooped, and seizing a 
handfal of dust placed it on his head, as a sign of mourn- 
ing, then rapidly strode on to the sanctuary, lifted the 
veil separating it from the body of the church, and falling 
on his knees clasped suppliantly one of the pillars sup- 
porting the altar, and there awaited the archbishop's 
coming. Outside the sanctuary, meanwhile, surged to and 
fro an ever-increasing crowd, while the tramp of soldiers' 
feet and the clash of arms was heard, and presently loud 
cries for the archbishop. But Chrysostom was already 
on the spot, prepared to vindicate the right which he 
had supported even against this very Eutropius, that 
the sanctity of the Church was sufficient protection for 
the very greatest criminal. Seizing him by the hand, he 
led the trembling minister to the sacristy, and concealed 
him there for the moment among the sacred vessels, and 
then returned to confront the -troops, who were threaten- 
ing to intrude into the holy place. " Bishop," they cried, 
as Chrysostom appeared, "Eutropius is concealed here, 
and we have orders to seize him. Deliver him up." But 
the man before them was not so easily daunted. He for- 
bade them to violate the sanctity of the place ; he bared 
his chest when they ventured to threaten, and dared them 
to do their worst ; he demanded to be led to the Emperor's 
presence. Great was the amazement in the streets, when 
Chrysostom was seen escorted by a guard of soldiers 
towards the palace, — hardly less great than the exultation 
in the amphitheatre, where, at the news of the minister's 



Church and State in Constantinople 65 

downfall, the whole audience rose to their feet as one man 
and demanded the head of Eatropius. 

Interference of Chrysostom. — The firmness of 
Chrysostom triumphed over the vacillation of Arcadius. 
Eor the moment, at least, he assented to the archbishop's 
demand, that the sanctity of the church should be re- 
spected, and the criminal, however guilty, be spared j 
and even the soldiers were persuaded, though not with- 
out difficulty, to obey orders and leave the wretched 
Eutropius where he was. Thus a slight respite was 
gained j the claims of the Church were for a while con- 
ceded j and it was the very man who would have 
refused those claims who owed his personal safety to 
their assertion. 

His famous Sermon. — The next day was Sunday. 
From daybreak the church was filled with eager throngs, 
anxious to hear what the archbishop would say on the all 
absorbing topic. Every class of society, all shades of 
feeling were there represented j but there was one feeling 
shared by all alike, a sincere hatred of Eutropius, and an 
overpowering curiosity to see how it would all end. And 
again, we are reminded of Savonarola, when we think of 
Chrysostom mounting the pulpit of the great church on 
that Sunday to address the vast multitude below, and to 
teach them the meaning of what they saw. Both alike 
were animated with the idea, that in their day and through 
tlieir means, God's cause was triumphing over the powers 
of earth. Both alike thought they could see the finger of 
God working by them in the events of which they were a 
part. All was hushed as the preacher motioned with his 
hand for silence. It was the perfect hush of high-wrought 
expectation. But he did not at once break the silence. 
An impression yet more profound was in store for that 
expectant crowd. He would appeal to eye no less than 

ROM. EMP. B 



66 History of the Roman Empire 

to ear. A thrill of deep emotion passed througli the vast 
congregation when the curtain of the sanctuary was sud- 
denly drawn back, and Eutropius was seen clinging to the 
altar, pale and trembling. Then the archbishop turned 
to his hearers. "Yanity of vanities," he cried, "all is 
vanity ! Where now are the splendours and banquets, 
the acclamations of the streets, the flatteries of the am- 
phitheatre % "Where are the false friends, the swarms of 
parasites'? Gone — gone for ever!" Presently, turning 
to Eutropius, " Did I not tell thee," he continued, " that 
riches had wings % thou wouldest not believe ! — that 
friends were false % thou wouldest not believe ! Thou 
didst persecute the Church, and the Church opens her 
arms to receive thee !" Then he went on to speak of the 
contrast between the past and the present, and of all the 
horrors of death which were agonising the wretched man's 
heart ; and, as the climax of his sermon, touched on that 
which to him was the central point of interest, the glory 
to the Church of protecting so great a criminal, so bitter 
a foe. Last of all, he invited his audience to accompany 
him to the palace, and to join him in imploring pardon 
for Eutropius. But in this he overshot the mark, and mis- 
took his own power over a susceptible but vindictive and 
passionate audience. The chamberlain had been too over- 
bearing, unscrupulous, and selfish in his day of greatness 
to awaken any active sympathy in his fall. 

Condemnation of Eutropius. — Eutropius remained 
in sanctuary for some days, and then suddenly disap- 
peared. It was presently known that he had left the 
church under a promise of his life being spared, if he would 
go quietly on board ship and allow himself to be con- 
veyed to Cyprus; and, meanwhile, a commission of in- 
quiry was named, under the presidency of the praetorian 
prefect, Aurelian, before which evidence was laid to show 



Church and State in Consta^itinople 6y 

that the minister had been guilty of high treason, espe- 
cially in using imperial insignia during his consulate. 
The legal punishment was death. At first, however, 
Arcadius felt genuine scruples as to authorising, the exe- 
cution of such a sentence, in face of the promise which 
alone had drawn Eutropius from his refuge. But his 
council were urgent that the promise only extended to 
Constantinople itself, not to other parts of the Empire ; 
while Eudoxia pressed eagerly for the punishment of 
death, feeling that as long as Eutropius lived her power 
was not assured, over either the Empire or her husband. 
Overpowered by this joint pressure Arcadius yielded. An 
imperial decree was shortly published, deposing Eutropius 
from all his dignities, confiscating his property to the 
treasury, and ordering the demolition of all the statues of 
him in every town and village. Einally, a vessel was sent 
to Cyprus to bring him home for punishment. He was 
brought to Chalcedon and there beheaded. 

Sequel of his Downfall. — Arcadius, however, had 
only exchanged one tyrant for another — the acute and 
supple man of the world for an imperious and hot-headed 
woman. Eudoxia was now mistress of the situation, sur- 
rounded with favourites both male and female, seeing 
with their eyes and hearing with their ears. It was not 
long before her pride and self-will brought her into conflict 
with Chrysostom, and occasioned that famous struggle 
which involved the whole East in confusion, and dur- 
ing which the archbishop was twice exiled and twice 
condemned, St Sophia was reduced to ashes, and Con- 
stantinople was half destroyed. It remains to trace the 
history of this conflict between the Empress and the arch- 
bishop in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER V, 
CHRYSOSTOM AND THE EMPRESS EUDOXIA. 

Difficulties of Chrysostom. — After the fall of 
Eutropius the Eastern Empire was ruled by a woman. 
Arcadius^ — less than thirty, yet prematurely old — was too 
timid and too indolent to resist Eudoxia's superior force 
of character; and she far too imperious and ambitious to 
be content with anything short of absolute power. There 
was, perhaps, only one human being whom the Emperor 
feared not less than he feared the Empress, and that was 
the archbishop. !Not only was he sincerely afraid of 
enibroiling himself with the Church generally, but Chry- 
sostom. was the recognised patron of the poor and the lower 
classes, and on the few occasions on which he had visited 
the palace it had been almost without exception to prefer 
complaint against the injustice or corruptions of the court, 
and to threaten ecclesiastical censures ; and on each occa- 
sion Arcadius had been forced to yield. The Empress 
soon discerned in this bold and eloquent priest a rival, 
whose influence might be fatal to her own; and selfish ambi- 
tion led her ere long to become the centre of a vast intrigue, 
whose object was Chrysostom's destruction. There was 
no lack of wiUing allies, for there were few classes, save 
the very poor, whose susceptibilities he did not succeed in 
offending. Eashionable ladies, pagans, monks, even priests 



Chrysosto7n and the Empress Eudoxia 69 

and deaconesses were arrayed against him from one cause 
or another ; and as he was peculiar in his hahits, im- 
petuous, and terribly in earnest, there were plenty of 
stories, ill-natured or amusing, for the world at large to 
spread and discuss, which were carefully told and doubt- 
less improved in the telling to court circles. Three great 
ladies in particular were, beside the Empress, his sworn 
enemies, — Marsa, Castricia, and Eugraphia,— for he was 
merciless to their special foibles. In his passionate ten- 
derness for the poor he could hardly find words of scorn 
strong enough to express his contempt for the luxuries 
and folKes of the rich, and, whether in the drawing-room 
or the pulpit, did not mince matters. He almost con- 
descended to personalities. That wealthy ladies of middle 
age should take the lead in society, not by alms and sim- 
plicity of life, but by flirtations and intrigues, by rouge 
and false hair, and by setting outrageous fashions, seemed 
to him scandalous ; and when he mounted the amto 
and fixed his eyes on the ladies' gallery running round the 
nave, and inveighed against the indelicate dresses and 
ordinary fashions of high society, it is intelligible that the 
allusions were relished by the crowd below, and gave great 
offence to those whom he all but named, j^or were the 
mendicant monks, who thronged the streets of the capital, 
and degraded the service of religion by grotesque cos- 
tumes and unworthy buffooneries, less hostile to Chrysos- 
tom. He had tried to suppress their convents, or to 
compel the monks to labour and to adopt a more seden- 
tary life. He had tried, but failed. And as the attempt 
exasperated, so the failure encouraged them in their hos- 
tility. The pagan party, meanwhile, watched the struggle 
with curiosity. Though indifferent to Eudoxia, yet they 
disliked the narrowmindedness, as they thought it, of 
Chrysostom, and naturally sympathised with the less 



Jo History of the Roman Empire 

formal and precise views of the court and tlie fashionably 
world. 

Ohrysostom unpopular with the Clergy. — Nor 

was the archbishop less unpopular among the ministers 
of the Church itself. From the first he had set his face 
like a flint against the luxury, greed, and avarice of the 
clergy, and thus raised up a host of enemies among those 
by whom he was daily surrouaded. And indeed there 
were vices prevalent among them calling for the sharpest 
reform. It was not with Chrysostom as with those pre- 
lates of a later age, who fought a long and arduous battle 
against the marriage of the clergy, and by sheer exercise 
of despotic power won a victory over human weakness. 
He had, indeed, like them, to face an inveterate custom 
of long standing, in defence of which all sorts of feelings 
were enlisted against him ; bat it was a custom, which, 
though innocent in its origin and capable of innocent use, 
was also open to terrible abuse. It had become the 
practice within comparatively recent times for the clergy 
to introduce into their houses a "beloved sister" (dya- 
TTTfr}), to be an associate in all good works, and to live 
with them. But too often in this world " noblest things 
find vilest using;" and what was in theory a beautiful 
and innocent fashion, suited to a society whose tone 
should be too lofty for human passion and weakness, de- 
generated in practice into a mere excuse for idleness, 
worldliness, and sensuality. Marriage, indeed, was a re- 
cognised and honourable estate, which had its safeguards 
as well as temptations; but the relation just described 
had temptations without safeguards. If nothing worse, 
the priest certainly could not give that undivided atten- 
tion to clerical duties, which his celibacy implied that he 
would. His moral tone was gradually lowered. He 
would'be tempted (it is Chrysostom's own accusation) to 



CJirysostom and the Empress Endoxia 7 1 

waste time and energy in tittle-tattle and sliopping. He 
would become enslaved to petty interests, or need money 
to support his household, and feel it no shame to lay 
hands on Church funds to which he had access, or on 
legacies or alms for the poor. Finally, too often, even 
before he suspected danger, he would be surprised by pas- 
sion and tempted to live in open sin. It was clearly a 
dangerous custom. Yet Chrysostom's attack upon it 
raised against him a host of enemies, whose interests were 
bound up in defeating the projected reform. 

Unpopular with the Rich. — I^or was Chrysostom's 
tenderness for the poor a source of popularity, except 
among the poor themselves. He held those peculiar views 
with regard to the duties and responsibilities attaching to 
wealth, which were not more popular with the wealthy 
then than they are now. He was " tribune of the people " 
almostas much as "priest." If he was pained by the suffer- 
ings of the poor, he was not less shocked at the inequalities 
of society. In his eyes the selfishness and cowardice of 
the rich was only equalled by the marvellous goodness and 
unselfishness of the poor. It was poverty which, had 
inspired Elijah with courage to rebuke Ahab, John the 
Baptist to rebuke Herod, and, as every one might infer, 
Chrysostom to rebuke Eudoxia and her luxurious court. 

Even his private habits and most innocent practices 
were sneered at and misrepresented by his enemies. The 
asceticism of his earlier years had produced a permanent 
weakness of digestion, which prevented his entering into 
society; he was often ill and dared not touch wine ; yet 
because he always dined alone, for there was hardly any- 
thing which he could eat with impunity, and refused all 
invitations, even to the palace, he was accused of indulg- 
ing in solitary orgies. No man was more charitable than 
Chrysostom ; yet his immense charities did not save him 



72 History of the Roman Empire 

from the accusation of stinginess or avarice, because his 
hfe was so simple. He founded hospitals for the sick ; 
he urged the wealthy to contribute to them ; he even de- 
sired that every house should have its vacant room, in 
which to shelter the poor and homeless. " Christ is at 
your doors," he says in one of his sermons ; " open to 
Him. You ought to give Him your best chamber, but He 
only asks for the least corner. Place Him where you will, 
in the attic with your servants, in the cellar, in the stable 
with your horses. Only take Him in." And yet the 
rancour of his enemies accused him of avarice and gluttony ! 

The Friends of Chrysostom. — But it was also a 
matter of course that a man of so elevated a character, of 
such courage and strength of will, should attach to himself 
devoted friends. And the devotion of his friends compen- 
sated in some degree for the general atmosphere of dislike 
and suspicion in which he lived. There were some few, 
indeed, like Serapion, the Egyptian, whose devotion to 
him (or, perhaps, to themselves) was greater than their 
discretion, and who, by flattery and adroit persuasion, 
fostered the weaker side — the imperiousness and obstinacy 
of the archbishop's character. Eut there were others, the 
salt of the earth, women as well as men, who clung to him 
faithfully through evil and good report, and were the great 
consolation of his life. 

Chrysostom, indeed, was a man to make both friends 
and enemies; but his friends loved him "with a love 
stronger than death." He has been compared to a "day 
in spring-time, bright and rainy, and glittering through 
its rain," — a man with faults, indeed (and who has not 
faults'?), yet of "noble earnestness and singleness of pur- 
pose" — " a bright, cheerful, gentle soul .... with a 
vigour, elasticity, and sunniness of mind all his own." ^ 
^ cf. Newman's " Historical Sketches.' ' " Last Years of St . Chrysostom.' 



Chrysostoin and tJie Empress Eudoxia 73 

Intrigues against Chrysostom — a.d. 401. — The 
war between Eudoxia and Chrysostom, which ended in 
his banishment and death, began in the year a.d. 401. An 
appeal had been made to him in the previous year, while 
a synod of twenty-seven Asiatic bishops was sitting, under 
his presidency, at Constantinople, to investigate certain 
charges publicly made against one of the bishops present, 
Antoninus of Ephesus. The archbishop was at first 
unwilling to interfere ; but the charges were precise and 
grave, and yielding at last to the pressure of popular indig- 
nation, he called on the accuser, a certain Bishop Eusebius, 
to present his proofs before a council to be convened for 
the purpose. Meanwhile Antoninus died, and Ephesus 
at once became a prey to the bribery, intrigues, and 
violence of competing candidates for the bishopric. In 
the universal confusion there seemed to the better disposed 
part of the population only one means of escape from the 
evils around them, an appeal to Chrysostom. Accord- 
ingly a letter was dispatched, entreating his presence. 
On January 9, a.d. 401, he started from Constantinople 
for Ephesus, leaving Severianus, Bishop of Gabala, to 
discharge the duties of bishop during his absence. !N"ow 
this man was a type of a class especially prevalent at 
this time, — an adventurer, ambitious and vain, and open 
to corruption. He had a good presence, a real gift of 
eloquence, a large knowledge of Scripture. He affected 
a deep admiration for Chrysostom, but in heart was jealous 
of his fame, and like many other Asiatics, was eager to 
share in the glory and the more substantial advantages, 
which this eloquence had won for him. Here was an 
ally worth winning indeed by the enemies of Chrysostom 
at court ; and a little judicious flattery soon won him. 
His sermons were pronounced by a fashionable audience 
superior to Chrysostom's, and the Empress even went so 



74 History of the Roman Empire 

far as to transgress ordinary custom, and, instead of wait- 
ing for the archbisliop's return, to hasten the baptism of 
her lately born son, afterwards Theodosius II., and had 
the ceremony performed by Severianus. But it was no 
mere ceremony ; the administration of the rite (according 
to Eastern ideas) conferred on a priest a kind of spiritual 
paternity, and bound him to the newly baptized by a bond 
that lasted through life. And thus Severianus was no 
longer a mere foreign bishop accidentally sojourning in 
Constantinople, but a prelate attached to the court and the 
Empress by a very special tie. Eor the same reason, also, 
he was an enemy of Chrysostom. 

There was yet another ally whom the court party gained 
during the archbishop's absence, and by means even more 
dubious. Acacius, Bishop of Beroea, a man far advanced 
in years and respected wherever he was known, had been 
a firm friend of Chrysostom's, and being in Constanti- 
nople on business, was invited to stay at the episcopal 
palace. The old man had the failing of many old men, 
and looked forward with some complacency to the comforts 
and luxuries he would find there ; but he reckoned with- 
out his host. The archbishop's asceticism applied to his 
friends no less than himself. Simplicity of life was the rule 
for all alike within the palace; and Acacius, already piqued 
by what he thought his friend's want of courtesy towards 
an old man, was easily roused to irritation, and then 
dislike, and then hostility, by a dexterous insinuation 
from the court that such treatment was not only dis- 
courtesy, but studied insult. 

Troubles with the Arians. — Chrysostom returned 
only to discover the defection of his supposed friends, and to 
find that his difficulties were increased. IS^ot only did his 
own impetuosity of temper betray him into sarcastic re- 
marks, the drift of which was obvious, about Jezebel and her 



Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia 75 

friends, but he qnarrelled with Severianus, and was then 
forced into an open, if hollow, reconciliation. A further 
unlucky circumstance about this time tended to increase 
the prevalent feeling — so fatal when it exists, and so dif- 
ficult to eradicate — that Chrysostom was a stubborn and 
maladroit person, whose presence always meant failure 
if not strife. During the reign of the orthodox Theo- 
dosius, the Arians had not been permitted to have 
churches within the walls of Constantinople. They had 
protested, but in vain. Under the more feeble Arca- 
dius, however, and relying on the " barbarian" influence 
then so strongly felt throughout the East, the Arians 
hoped to regain at least toleration. At first they ven- 
tured only to assemble in small bodies on Sundays and 
feast days, under the various porticoes and in the streets, 
and so to go to their churches. Thus gradually arose 
formal "processions," unrecognised rather than unobserved. 
But while Chrysostom was absent in Asia, Severianus had 
winked at their growing boldness, until the weekly pro- 
cession had developed into something like a weekly chal- 
lenge to their antagonists, with chants and litanies sung 
as they marched, and had too often degenerated into mere 
provocation and insult. Immediately on his return the 
archbishop called upon the civil powers to stop the 
scandal, and when nothing was done, proceeded to organise 
a counter-demonstration of- the faithful, with more ortho- 
dox litanies and chants. In effect this was a direct invi- 
tation to riot, if not bloodshed. When the angry contro- 
versialists met in the streets, and a struggle ensued, and 
a servant of the Empress was killed and many wounded, 
and Arcadius threatened to fine the prsefect heavily if 
such a scene occurred again, it was perhaps not just, but 
it certainly was not strange, that the odium fell upon 
Chrysostom. To him, probably more than to any man, the 



"jG History of the Roman Empire 

whole thing was a grief and a shame ; yet he had to suffer 
for the evil passions of others and for his own mistake. 

The " Tall Brothers" of the Nitrian Desert. — It 
might have seemed ill fortune enough to have succeeded 
in arousing the enmity of so many and such diverse 
enemies at once as the Arian heretics, the heathen party, 
the foreign bishops in Constantinople, the monks, and the 
world of fashion and high life. But beyond this Chrysos- 
tom became presently entangled in the fortunes of the 
so-called "Tall Brothers" of Mtria, and again exposed to 
the intrigues of his old enemy Theophilus. These four 
brothers, named respectively Ammonius, Dioscorus, 
Euthymius, and Eusebius, were anchorites of great repute 
for sanctity and learning, living in the desert of JSTitria, 
between the Mle and the Libyan mountains. Eor a long 
time they had been the glory of the patriarchate of Alex- 
andria; the eldest had accompanied Athanasius on his 
exile to Eome and the West ; and Theophilus, ever alive 
to his own interests, had for a while carefully cultivated 
their acquaintance, and even tried to ordain three of them 
in succession bishops. But they steadily refused, much 
to his chagrin, and at last an obscure quarrel, origina- 
ting in the avarice of Theophilus and the probity of the 
"brothers," turned the one-sided friendship into bitter 
hostility. The patriarch accused the " brothers" of the 
heresy of Origenism, of denying the "personality" of 
God. They might, indeed, have been well content to be 
confounded with a Jerome or an Epiphanius in the 
anathemas of a Theophilus ; but a yet graver quarrel 
ensued, fraught with yet graver consequences. The 
enmity of Theophilus could not be satisfied without 
revenge. In an interview between them and himself 
relative to the pardon of a certain Isidore, who had 
offended the patriarch, he pretended to have been in- 



Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia jy 

suited, tlirew them into prison, sent tliem in chains to 
iN'itria, excommunicated them, and finally, ordered the 
various convents, with which they were connected, to 
destroy at once all their hooks that were in any way 
tainted with heresy. Spies were surreptitiously intro- 
duced into the monasteries to watch whether the order 
was oheyed ; and when ohedience was delayed, a pre- 
concerted petition was got up and presented to Theo- 
philus, praying him to take action in the matter. This 
was all that was wanted. The prsefect was requested 
to lend some troops for the occasion, at whose head 
marched the patriarch in person, like a general to hattle. 
The expedition was timed to reach the scene of action in 
the darkness of night, and then ensued what to our ears 
sounds almost incredible, a veritable night attack on the 
unsuspecting convents, which, under pretence of a search 
for heretical books, were forcibly entered, pillaged, and 
in some cases even burnt to the ground. The monks fled 
in all directions, and with them the " brothers," on whose 
capture Theophilus was most intent. The rendezvous 
was to be the borders of Egypt and Syria. But among 
300 who had escaped, age, fatigue, and misery wrought sad 
havoc. Only eighty reached the rendezvous safely, whence 
after some deliberation they resolved, on the advice of 
Isidore and the " brothers," to repair to Constantinople 
and lay their appeal before the Emperor and Chrysostom, 
never doubting to obtain justice from the former, and 
from the latter protection. Out of eighty only fifty 
reached Constantinople. The archbishop at once in- 
terested himself in their case, and satisfied himself of 
their orthodoxy. He promised to call a speedy council, 
or to obtain their pardon from the patriarch, meanwhile 
advising them to keep clear of the Emperor, and not bring 
an ecclesiastical matter before a civil judge. As for him- 



yS History of the Roman Empire 

self he could not, he said, receive them under his own 
roof or at his table while still under excommunication, 
but they might lodge in the cloisters of the church. The 
great alarm of Chrysostom, in fact, was that the unso- 
phisticated monks, in their indignation or impatience, 
would carry their matter straight to the Emperor, and that 
then the unedifying sight would be seen of the second 
bishop in the East placed on his trial before a lay judge. 
To prevent this it was that he wrote a letter to Theophilus, 
conjuring him to pardon the fugitives as a favour to him- 
self. But Theophilus was a good hater, and the advocacy 
of Chrysostom was to him a sufficient reason for continu- 
ing his persecution. He returned a curt answer to the 
archbishop's letter, bidding him. practically mind his own 
business, and shortly afterwards sent an embassy, consist- 
ing of a bishop and four abbots, to request the Emperor 
to banish from Constantinople certain fugitive monks, 
condemned and excommunicated for rebellion, heresy, 
and magic. The last word was an artful addition to a 
false accusation. Magic was " high treason," and regarded 
with horror, as implying evil intentions towards the head 
of the state. It was a crime to be investigated by a 
special commission, and punishable with banishment or 
death. To represent these poor monks as a band of magi- 
cians, therefore, was a master-stroke of policy, and was 
certain to arouse against them popular indignation, the 
suspicion of the Emperor, and the hostility of all time- 
servers. The charge was false indeed, and known to be 
false ; but that made no difference. The Patriarch of 
Alexandria was too great a man in Constantinople for his 
w^ords to be slighted ; for Alexandria fed Constantinople, 
and a large part of the population of the capital were Egyp- 
tians, engaged in the corn trade — that is^ spiritual subjects 
and poKtical dependants of the patriarch. To offend the 



Chrysosto7n and the Empress Ettdoxia 79 

patriarcli tlierefore was no light matter. The " brothers," 
indignant at the false charges brought against them, and 
the scorn to which they were subjected, and finding no 
help in Chrysostom, who recoiled from exposing a brother 
bishop to a civil court, resolved at last to appeal to Arca- 
dius. The enemies of Chrysostom exulted, and strained 
every nerve to widen the breach, and encourage the exiles 
to throw themselves on the mercy of the Emperor, and even 
more of the Empress. In short, the "brothers" became 
the fashion, and were run after by all the great people 
of Constantinople. Presently a meeting was arranged, 
apparently accidental, between them and the Empress at 
a church in the suburbs, at which, while imploring their 
prayers and blessing, she promised to use all efforts to 
obtain the convocation of a synod and the arraignment of 
their enemy ; nor had many days passed before a synod 
was convoked, and Theophilus summoned to appear. 

Intrigues of Theophilus. — The strategy of Theo- 
philus to escape the danger was admirable. Two points 
seemed clear to him, — first, that Chrysostom was probably 
at the bottom of the matter; and, secondly, that it would 
be well to secure an ally for the impeuding battle. If 
possible, therefore, a counterblow must be aimed at 
Chrysostom. An ally he secured in Epiphanius, Bishop 
of Salamis. Epiphanius was a man whom the patriarch 
had attacked years before as a heretic. He was now more 
than eighty years of age, and with advancing years had 
lost something of the generous earnestness of earlier days, 
while a long pre-eminence in the Church as a doctrinal 
authority had somewhat impaired the balance of his own 
judgment, and his respect for the judgment of others. 
He was within a little of being a tyrant, and had all the 
air of infallibility. On such a vain and simple nature 
the patriarch knew well how to play. Eirst, he professed 



8o History of the Roman Empire 

sorrow at ever having been misled into Origenism, and 
expressed gratitude to his friend through whom he had 
seen his errors. l!^ext, he suggested that the real question 
at issue in the coming council would he the truth or error 
of Origen's views, and urged him, therefore, in concert 
with his suffragans in Cyprus, to draw up a statement of 
the orthodox doctrine thereon, and forward a copy to the 
archbishop, who, as a friend of the "brothers," was pre- 
sumably a partner in their false notions. Could the idea 
fail to occur to the mind of Epiphanius, so dexterously 
insinuated, that the glory might be before him of con- 
verting Chrysostom, as it appeared he had converted 
Theophilus, and that he might be able once again to 
guide, perhaps preside over the decisions of a great 
council ! And yet the poor old man was only a cat's- 
paw. Chrysostom returned a cold answer to Epipha- 
nius' statements of doctrine, and the old man was 
irritated. His authority was questioned, and he resolved 
to go to Constantinople and recall the archbishop to his 
duty. But when he arrived, he was so ill-advised as to 
make peace impossible, first, by ordaining off-hand a 
deacon of whom he knew nothing, and that in another 
man's diocese ; and, secondly, by refusing to reside in the 
palace unless the archbishop would excommunicate the 
"brothers" and interdict the writings of Origen. But 
Chrysostom steadily refused to anticipate the decision of 
the pending council, and so the enmity between them 
was aggravated. It was not, however, for long. The 
excitement of the actual conflict, and an interview with 
the " brothers," in which he discovered that he had in 
ignorance been wronging them, determined the aged bishop 
to abandon a strife to which he was no longer equal, and 
to turn his back on the capital. He hastened to set sail, 
but it was only to die on the voyage homewards. 



Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia 8 1 

Council of the Oak — ad. 403.— Meantime Theo- 
philus was on his way to the capital, and was met at 
Chalcedon by twenty-eight bishops from various parts of 
the East summoned to attend the council in July (a.d. 403). 
The Emperor assigned a palace in Pera for his use, and 
the patriarch lost no time after his arrival in conciliating 
or securing the goodwill of the coart ladies by presents 
of silks and scents. The lower orders were not so easily 
won; and indeed so great was the agitation among Chry- 
sostom's friends, the artisans and labouring classes, that 
it was deemed hardly safe to hold the council in the city, 
and a suburb of Chalcedon, on the opposite side of the 
Bosporus, was fixed upon. Hence the name of the 
" Council of the Oak." There were eighty bishops present 
at the time in Constantinople, but no more than forty-five 
were ever present at the council, the residue remaining 
with Chrysostom on the other side. The Patriarch of 
Alexandria presided. 

The first witness summoned was Chrysostom's arch- 
deacon, an official who, presiding over the external ad- 
ministration of the diocese, was supposed to be specially 
behind the scenes. This man owed Chrysostom a grudge, 
and now trumped up a series of charges against him, which 
were only serious from the position of the man who made 
them. The accusations comprised personal violence, in- 
sult, violation of the canons, theft, immorality; and a 
citation was presently served on the archbishop from the 
council summoning him to appear before them. It ran 
as follows : — " The Holy Synod assembled at the Oak to 
John. We have received a schedule of accusation ao:ainst 
thee, denouncing thee as guilty of an infinity of crimes. 
"We require thee to appear here before us, and bring with 
thee the priests Serapion and Tigrius, for we have need 
of them." To this curt and insolent letter, omitting even 

ROM. £MP. 9 



82 History of the Roman Einpii^e 

the archbishop's title, two answers were at once returned : 
one from the bishops of Chrysostom's party, warning 
Theophikis not to interfere in another man's province; 
the other from Chrysostom himself, protesting against 
their place of meeting (which by every rule should have 
been the city of Constantinople), but nevertheless agreeing 
to appear before them, provided that his personal enemies 
— the Patriarch TheojDhilus, Acacius of Beraea. Antiochus 
of Ptolemais, and Severianus of Gabala — were not present. 
Hereupon the soi-disant council despatched two priests of 
the church of Constantinople to cite the archbishop once 
more by word of mouth. " Why delay est thou ?" they 
said; "the council expects thee, and thou hast to clear 
thyself, if thou canst, of the crimes alleged against thee." 
It was a studied insult to cite an archbishop thus by the 
mouth of two of his own clergy, and Chrysostom felt it 
to be such. He immediately returned a verbal answer 
by three of his own bishops, protesting against such a 
step. But the council was already in a ferment after the 
receipt of his first reply; and when the three emissaries 
appeared and delivered their message, an extraordinary 
scene ensued. The reverend fathers rose from their seats 
and condescended, some to menaces and insults, some 
even to violence. One unfortunate ambassador received 
a severe blow; another had his clothes torn to ribbons; 
while the third, yet more unhappy, was graced with the 
chain originally intended for the archbishop's neck, had 
he been rash enough to appear, was dragged out of the 
church, thrown into a boat, and committed to the more 
tender mercies of winds and waves. Twice again was 
Chrysostom summoned to appear before the council; 
and twice he returned the same answer as before. At 
last, foiled in his efforts to entice the archbishop over 
the water, and so to secure his person, Theophilus re- 



Chrysostom and tJu Empress Ezidoxia 83 

solved if possible to enlist tlie Emperor's feelings in the 
struggle. 

Condemnation of Chrysostom. — ^WitL. this idea, 
an addition was made to the previous charges, to the 
effect that the archbishop had publicly insulted the Em- 
press in his sermons, comparing her to Jezebel and Hero- 
dias. At its twelfth sitting the council proceeded to 
judgment, in the absence of the accused. Eorty-five 
bishops were present and voted. Chrysostom was con- 
demned to deposition from the archbishopric, of which 
immediate notice was sent to the metropolitan clergy ; and 
a full report (relatio) of the acts of the council and the 
grounds of condemnation was dispatched to the Emperors 
Arcadius and Honorius. The execution of the sentence 
was left to the civil power. 

Serm.on against the Empress. — Three days passed, 
and Chrysostom was still in occupation of his church and 
palace, notwithstandmg that the Imperial assent had been 
given to the sentence. All was confusion and indecision 
in Constantinople. Ever and anon an Imperial officer 
appeared at the palace, requiring the archbishop to pre- 
pare to go. The order was always disregarded, and the 
officer retired. Meanwhile Arcadius shrank from using 
force; for vast crowds of people voluntarily mounted guard 
night and day round the palace; force would have been 
resisted and blood shed. The universal cry was for " a 
general council" — a larger synod to try the cause again. 
A single rash act brought matters to a crisis. Severianus 
of Gabala, two days after the condemnation, was bold 
enough to cross the water, enter a church, and dehver an 
address on recent events, commenting severely on Chry- 
sostom's pride. The audience rose upon him in such fury 
that he had difficulty in escaping. IN'or was the arch- 
bishop "himself less angry, believing the attack to have 



84 History of the Roman Empire 

been really imagined and directed by the Empress Eudoxia ; 
and Hs anger found relief in a famous sermon which, 
sealed his fate. After describing the storms and waves 
which threatened to engulf him, he bade his hearers not 
be discouraged, for that Christ would never forsake His 
Church. " And do you know, my brethren," he con- 
tinued, "why it is they seek my destruction? It is 
because I have no rich hangings, no grand dinners, no 
open house. . . . Herodias, too, is here; and Herodias 
dances, and demands the head of John ! My brethren, it 
is a time for tears; for everything is tending to dishonour 
(dSo^ta). Money alone gives honour and glory. Yet hear 
what David says, 'If riches increase, set not yourhearts upon 
them.' And who was David ? "Was he not a man raised 
to a king's throne — but," again almost naming Eudoxia 
(evSoiLo), " he never showed himself the slave of a woman ! 
O woe, woe to women, who close their ears to the warn- 
ings of Heaven, and, drunk not with wine but with avarice 
and hate, besiege their husbands with evil counsels." 

Deportation of Chrysostom to Chalcedon.— 
There was a woman in the palace hard by whose husband 
was her very slave, and whose character belied her name, 
a second Herodias to a second John, to whose ears these 
harsh words were carried at once. And at once the blow 
fell. The next day an Imperial officer of high grade pre- 
sented himseK, and ordered the archbishop, in the Em- 
peror's name, to quit the town immediately. And this 
time there was no hesitation. A vessel was ready, and in 
case of need a military force at hand. To spare needless 
bloodshed Chrysostom acquiesced. Leaving the cloisters 
bv a private door, he lay concealed with a guard until 
nightfall, and was then conducted by retired streets to 
the harbour and placed on board a vessel, which instantly 
weighed anchor. The Propontis was crossed, and their 



Chrysostom and the Empress Etidoxia ^^^ 

prisoner landed not far from Chalcedon, wliile they re- 
turned. But this was to be within grasp of his enemies. 
It was still night, and the exile hired a boat, put out to 
sea again, and coasting southward to the Gulf of Asfcacus, 
landed near the little town of Prsenetus, where a friend of 
his had a villa, and there concealed himself. 

Riot and Earthquake in Constantinople. — That 
was a sad night for Constantinople. Half alarmed, half 
indignant, vast crowds flocked to the churches when these 
events became kno"^n; and when the churches were filled, 
formed meetings in the streets and colonnades. But 
there was no violence, only a hushed and foreboding 
despondency. And the next day was yet sadder. Theo- 
philus, flushed with triumph, crossed from Chalcedon, 
recommended the various priests, his friends, to take 
possession of their respective churches, and himself essayed 
to force an entrance into the archiepiscopal basilica. But 
force was met with force. A veritable battle ensued. 
Presently, to make the matter yet worse, soldiers appeared 
on the scene. Blood was freely shed. Churches were 
piled with dead bodies — were barricaded, besieged, and 
stormed like fortresses. And as the excitement rose higher, 
and bloodshed whetted the thirst for blood, the massacre 
became indiscriminate, innocent victims were cut down 
in the streets, and even monks were slain and their con- 
vents sacked. A day of horror was followed by a night 
of terror; for Constantinople was shaken from end to end 
by a shock of earthquake, and even the Imperial sleep 
disturbed. In an agony of fright at this manifest display 
of the "vvrath of Heaven, Eudoxia besought her husband to 
recall the archbishop, and with her own hand wrote him 
a letter repudiating all share in his banishment. 

Chrysostom Recalled. — Before daybreak a hurried 
envoy was dispatched, and then a second, and yet a third, 



S6 History of the Roman Empire 

to deliver this letter, and to urge Chrysostom to return at 
once, and save the city from destruction. He returned, 
and his progress was one scene of triumph and rejoicing. 
Despite his own wishes, the exultant people compelled 
him to repair to his own church without delay, and with 
violent though loving hands lifted him to the pulpit and 
implored him to address and bless them. To his adver- 
saries there remained only flight or concealment. Indeed 
the council broke up the same day without finishing its 
business. Theophilus set out for Alexandria, Severianus 
for Gabala; and an Imperial decree, at the instance of 
Chrysostom, was signed and issued for a new council. 

Statues of the Empress. — But fear is not as last- 
ing as pride or hate, and with its causes the Empress' 
fear passed away. Kot so her dislike to her old enemy, 
which, ere two months had passed, circumstances fanned 
again into a furious flame of hostility and persecution. 
Whether suggested by her own pride or the servility of her 
courtiers, an idea presented itself to the mind of the Empress 
as foolish as it was unprecedented. She succeeded in in- 
ducing Arcadius to allow statues of herself to be set up in 
the empire and " adored," as were those of the Emperor. 
To the West this seemed simply monstrous, and even to 
the East strange, and rather ridiculous. The Emperors 
were incarnations, so to say, of the gr^at Roman people, 
and as such, in a sense, divine ; but Empresses — what 
were they beyond being wives and mothers of Emperors % 
Eudoxia, however, insisted; and Arcadius gave way. 
Above aU, she set store by a silver statue of herself, 
erected on a porphyry column, and placed in the centre 
of the Eorum, where, with the church of St Sophia on one 
hand, and the senate-house on the other, the palace be- 
yond, and the busiest street of Constantinople at her feet, 
she might seem, as it were, to dominate palace, church. 



Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia 87 

and city, and even to inspire the wisdom of the senate. 

The statue was inaugurated with rejoicings worthy of 
the occasion, which lasted for several days. But the 
austere soul of Chrysostom was disgusted with the scenes 
that went on just outside his church, and with the inter- 
ruptions of services and sermons caused by the music and 
shouting. He complained to the prefect. Eut the pre- 
fect was too wise a man of the world to offend an Em- 
press needlessly, and referred the archbishop to Eudoxia. 
l^Qxt day the noise and interruption was even greater, 
and Chrysostom deeming it, perhaps not unnaturally, a 
bravado and provocation, not only of the prefect, but of 
the higher powers, ascended the pulpit, and once more, as 
so often before, inveighed against all who took part in or 
countenanced such doings. His personal allusions were 
soon the talk of the town, and duly reported to Eudoxia, 
who hastened to the palace and demanded from the Em- 
peror " vengeance " on her enemy; and the Emperor, 
deeply offended, declared that it was time to put an end 
to such factious insults ! Once more, then, the court be- 
came the centre of intrigues directed against the arch- 
bishop's peace and life ; once more his old enemies ap- 
peared upon the scene, and insidious suggestions were 
heard to the effect that the council which Chiysostom so 
earnestly desired might, perhaps, by good management 
turn out to his ruin. ludeed, all efforts were now 
directed to this end, that the council should be held in 
Constantinople, that is, under the eye and influence of 
the court, and that it should not rescind, but repeat and 
confirm the decisions of the Council of the Oak. Arca- 
dius, meanwhile, refused to hold any intercourse with the 
archbishop, or even to communicate at his church (as was 
the immemorial custom) on Christmas day (a.d. 403). 
Council of Constantinople — a.d. 404. — The conn- 



^S ' His for)/ of the Roman Empire 

cil assembled in January a.d. 404, and as before, fell at 
once into two parties; and its difficulties began at once. 
How could it reconsider the decisions of a former council 
without going into details % How go into details when 
many of the accusers and witnesses were dead, or far 
away ? Worst of all, how face the eloquent indignation 
of Chrysostom, who -would have to be heard? Were 
these not reasons for temporising and delay? At* this 
juncture an Egyptian bishop, and we know in whose 
spirit he spoke, suggested a preliminary question — was 
it in their power, or indeed in that of any ecclesiastical 
tribunal, to try the archbishop's case at all ? By virtue 
of ecclesiastical law, he was no longer either bishop or 
priest ; and the speaker proceeded to quote two canons 
passed at a council held at Antioch in a,d. 341, under the 
presidency of* the Emperor Constantias, of which the 
former declared that a bishop deposed by a council, and 
taking upon himself to resume his functions without 
reversal of sentence, or without being reinstated by his 
judges, should be i;pso fado excommunicate j the latter, 
that a bishop or priest thus excommunicate, and continuing 
to excite trouble in the Church, should be dealt with by 
the secular power. If, therefore, the canons of Antioch 
applied to this case, it would seem that the archbishop, 
who had been deposed by the Council of the Oak, and 
had resumed his position without their authority, was ex- 
communicate thereby, and not in a position to appeal to 
another council, being practically out of the Church. 
Chrysostom, however, was as well acquainted with Church 
history as his enemies, and succeeded in placing them in 
a disagreeable dilemma. The Council of Antioch was a 
council of Arians, presided over by an Arian Emperor, 
and its object was the deposition of the orthodox Athana- 
sius ; its canons, therefore, were Arian and heretical. 



Chrysostom and the Empress Eiidoxia 89 

With what grace, then, could an orthodox council ap- 
peal to the canons of a heterodox council, if they cared to 
preserve their orthodoxy % And further, whether orthodox 
or heterodox, the canons quoted did not apply to his 
case, for he had not heen deposed by a genuine council, 
but by a packed meeting of his private enemies, who had 
condemned him unheard, and not even conveyed to him 
their own sentence of deposition. The question thus 
raised by Chrysostom as to the orthodoxy of the Council 
of Antioch became at once the general topic of conversa- 
tion in public and private circles, and was hotly discussed 
without much effect. At length a committee of twelve was 
nominated — six from each side — to discuss the question in 
the Emperor's presence, — a struggle in which the spokes- 
man on the archbishop's side gained a ready victory by 
inviting his opponents to declare their faith to be that of the 
council whose canons they relied on. They shrank from 
declaring themselves heretics, and so the discussion ended. 
Chrysostom forbidden to Leave the Palace. — 
Meanwhile a straw began to show which way the tide 
was turning — the fashionable world began, to desert 
the archbishop's sermons ; and he felt it acutely, and 
touched on it severely more than once. l!Tay more, 
Easter was approaching with its grand series of services 
and ceremonies, and more than 3,000 catechumens were 
awaiting their baptism at the archbishop's hands on 
Easter Eve. The Emperor chose this solemn time to 
forbid his entering the church, and ordered him to con- 
fine himself to the palace adjoining. Chrysostom obeyed, 
but it was with a heavy heart, and with painful uncer- 
tainty as to whether it was his duty to obey. Further 
reflection convinced him it was not ; and he resolved at 
last to brave consequences, and to perform in person the 
duties which were rightly his. 



90 History of the Roman Empire 

His Disobedience. — On the morning of Easter Eve 
the archbishop left his involuntary prison and proceeded 
to St. Sophia. The officers in charge of him had strict 
orders to use no violence; so that, baffled by his firmness, 
and unable to persuade where they could not prevent, 
they had nothing to do but to hasten to the palace and re- 
port to the Emperor what was happening. Arcadius was 
both irritated and alarmed, and at the same time at a 
loss what to do, for he shrank from using force at such a 
season. Bat his counsellors, especially the Eishops An- 
tiochus and Acacius, were at no loss. Careless of conse- 
quences, they took on their own heads the resjDonsibility 
of his condemnation before the council, and urged 
Arcadius to act at once. And so the flood-gates of vio- 
lence and riot were once more thrown open. The services 
at St. Sophia had begun, the catechumens were succeeding 
each other in order at the font, when a noise was heard at 
the doors, and a body of troops, sword in hand, marched 
into the Basilica. The archbishop first was seized and 
dragged off. The soldiers then divided, and, so to say, swept 
the church. Men, women, children, were struck, knocked 
down, and even wounded, and the sanctuary itself dese- 
crated. The frightened crowds fled, and reassembled to 
conclude their service in the Baths of Constantius. But 
there, too, after a short delay, they were followed and 
ejected with more bloodshed and greater violence. Even 
some few, who still persevered and tried to finish in the 
country what they had begun in the city, were tracked, 
plundered, beaten, and dispersed. And then began a more 
odious persecution still. House after house was visited 
by police in search of " Joannites," as Chrysostom's 
followers were named; and the prisons were filled to 
overflowing with clergy and laity, whose only crime was 
fidelity and love. 



Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia 91 

The Council Ratifies his Condemnation. — The 

council in the meantime, whose existence had been almost 
overlooked during the last few days, concluded its busi- 
ness, and, as everybody had foreseen, bowed to the sinister 
influences all around, and signified its ratification of 
the acts of the Council of the Oak. ''John had been 
deposed, and having thereupon resumed his functions 
without license, was ijgso facto excommunicate. Let the 
civil power therefore now act." In accordance with this 
recommendation Chrysostom was kept a close prisoner in 
his palace, from Easter to "Whitsuntide, preparatory to 
sterner measures. 

Chrysostom Appeals to the West. — Despairing 
of any further justice from, his brethren in the East, he 
used the interval in composing and dispatching his famous 
" Appeal to the West," and specially to the three great 
bishops of Italy, — Innocent of Eome, Yenerius of Milan, 
and Chromatins of Aquileia. It detailed the disorders of 
the Church in the East, and described the fearful scenes 
in St. Sophia, concluding with an earnest request that his 
cause might be fairly tried before an CEcumenical Council, 
Eour bishops and two deacons were the bearers of these 
letters, who would also be able to attest as eye-witnesses 
the truth of what was stated. Innocent was profoundly 
impressed, though his immediate reply was calm and 
dignified. He ordered a solemn fast throughout the 
Eoman Church, and prayers to be offered for the restora- 
tion of peace and unity to the East. At the same time 
he wrote two letters — one to Theophilus, announcing his 
intention of summoning a general council; the other to 
Chrysostom, sympathising with and consoling him under 
his afflictions. More than this, he used his great influence 
with Honorius to induce him to espouse Chrysostom's 
cause with his brother Arcadius. 



92 History of the Roman Empire 

Second Exile of Ohrysostom — a.d. 404. — But events 
were marcliing rapidly at Constantinople. Two attempts 
were made to assassinate the arclibishop, and barely failed. 
The population was growing more and more excited; his 
enemies more and more earnest to induce Arcadius to act. 
Again they undertook to bear the whole responsibility 
of his deposition. Thus urged, and perhaps eager to buy 
a little peace at any price, the Emperor yielded. 

Riot and Burning of St Sophia. — On the 20th of 
June A.D. 404, early in the morning, strong detachments 
of soldiers took up positions round the church and the 
archbishop's palace, and about mid-day an Imperial officer 
presented himself before Chrysostom, and delivered a 
letter ordering his immediate departure. Fearing the re- 
sult of delay or refusal, the archbishop took a hasty fare- 
well of the bishops and deaconesses, and leaving the 
church by the eastern door, while the crowd was expecting 
him at the western, surrendered himself to the soldiers 
there posted. The people, however, became suspicious. 
Some ran to the harbour, where they saw the vessel con- 
taining Chrysostom and his few companions already cross 
ing the Bosporus. Others penetrated into the church, 
which, however, they found already occupied by troops. 
Blows followed, and cries were heard; while those outside, 
thinking some harm was being done to the archbishop, 
attacked the closed doors and forced their way in. The 
soldiers at once used their weapons; oaths and shouts 
filled the air, mingled with the groans of wounded and 
dying. Presently a fearful storm burst over the city, 
with an awful darkness that added to the confusion; and 
while men's minds were thus overwrought, and as though 
the anger of Heaven were to be yet more clearly mani- 
fested, the church itself on a sudden was discovered to be 
in flames, which soon mastered the whole building, and, 



Chrysostom and the Empress Etidoxia 93 

fanned by the gale, swept across the Forum, enveloped 
and destroyed the senate-house, and even threatened 
the Imperial palace. Such were the omens which accom- 
panied the final departure of the archbishop from Con- 
stantinople. 

Chrysostom Conveyed to Cucusus. — He and his 
companions — two bishops, named Eulysius and Cyracius, 
and certain priests of his own church — had been landed 
at Chalcedon, and ignorant alike of their own destination 
and of what had happened in Constantinople, were pro- 
ceeding sadly towards Mcsea, escorted by Praetorian guards, 
when they were overtaken by a small body of cavalry 
soldiers, the officer of which had orders to bring back the 
archbishop's companions on a charge of complicity in the 
burning of St. Sophia. Then, for the first time, the little 
party learned to their dismay all that had taken place; 
and then, for the first time, torn from his friends, Chry- 
sostom was left alone. And so he set off" into exile. His 
destination, he discovered at last, was Cucusus, a place 
lying on the military road from Constantinople to Meso- 
potamia, and about 120 miles north of Antioch. The 
three years which he spent there (a.d. 404-407) were the 
most glorious, perhaps the happiest of his life. In exile, 
his faults were forgotten, his virtues remembered, and he 
himself had no fears for the future. He kept up a close 
connection with his own church of Constantinople and 
his many friends within it, and maintained a corre- 
spondence with many and distant provinces. 

Removal to Pityus. — But there were dangers to be 
faced even there from marauding Isaurians, and hard- 
ships to be undergone from the severities of the climate, — 
dangers and hardships which his enemies at home, it 
seems, hoped might end his ha teful life. But whensuch 
was not the case, and he lived on through three weary 



94 History of the Roman Empire 

winters, Ms enemies petitioned the Emperor, and olDtained 
a "rescript" ordering liis immediate removal to Pityus. 
This was a town lying at tlie remotest frontier of the 
Eoman Empire, on the shore of the Euxine and at the 
foot of the Caucasus, once a large and flourishing place, 
but at that time ruined by the gradual westward ad- 
vance of the barbarians, with a surrounding nomad 
population, and peopled almost solely by a garrison as 
barbarous as they. Probably all alike were pagans. In 
this wild place it was hoped he might die, and at the 
least his eloquent tongue would be silent. But he was 
not destined ever to reach it. The two soldiers respon- 
sible for his safe conduct took the road from Cucusus 
northwards, which would lead . through Sebaste to jSTeo- 
Csesarea, and so to the coast; and for three months they 
toiled on, through rain and sunshine, careless of his suffer- 
ings, anxious only to be rid of their burden. 

Death at Oomana in Pontus — Sept. 14, 407. — 
They reached Comana in Pontus, and there fatigue, ex- 
posure, and illness relieved them of their wearisome task, 
for Chrysostom died on September 14. " When he got to 
the shrine of the martyr Basiliscus," says Palladius, his 
biographer, " he asked for white vestments suitable to 
the tenor of his past life, and taking off his clothes of 
travel, he clad himself in them from head to foot, being 
still fasting, and then gave away his old ones to those 
about him.. Then, having communicated in the symbols 
of the Lord, he said his customary words, 'Glory be to 
God for all things,' and having concluded with his last 
Amen, he stretched forth those feet of his which had 
been so beautiful in their running, whether to convey 
salvation to the penitent or reproof to the hardened in 

sin And being gathered to his fathers, and 

shaking off this mortal dust, he passed to Christ." 



CHAPTER VI. 

ALARIC AND THE VISIGOTHS— A D. 396-419. 

State of Italy — a.d. 400. — The foremost man in the 
YT'estern Empire at the beginning of the fifth century was 
Stilicho the Vandal. Able and experienced — barbarian 
by birth and Eoman in feeling — he was better able, per- 
haps, than any man to understand the needs of Italy, and 
to enforce the discipline and forbearance which was so 
necessary for peace. His very name was a terror to evil- 
doers, and for a while a guarantee against invasion. His 
position was further strengthened by his own marriage to 
Serena, the niece of Theodosius, and by the marriage of 
his daughter Maria to Honorius. Eut the difficulties of 
government were such as might have taxed the wisdom 
and energy of even a Constantine or an Augustus. In 
all the Eoman world. West and East alike, there was the 
same decay of political principles and public spirit ; but 
Italy and the West presented special difficulties of their 
own besides. If there were still pagans and heretics in 
the East, they were a small and powerless minority; while 
the paganism of Italy, and specially of Eome, where every 
street and almost every building were memorials of an 
antiquity wholly pagan, was a distinct power and influence 
of which every statesman must take account, and a centre 
round which heretics and Jews, and all the discontented 



96 History of the Roman Empire 

members of a large and divided society might rally. It 
was this party which had revolted against Theodosius in 
A.D. 394, and so nearly defeated him in the battle of Sept. 6, 
at the foot of the Julian Alps ; it was still hostile to his 
family. It was at the same time a coalition of much that 
was noble and much that was base, of noble senators and 
aristocratic philosophers, with fanatics, scoffing unbelievers 
and plotting conspirators, who had one common watch- 
word indeed, " religious liberty," but whose real interests 
were so diverse that their power was limited to simple 
opposition. To them, as to so many " coalitions," success 
would have been fatal. Fronting them stood the great 
and united Catholic party, headed by the court and the 
bishops — a party conscious of its strength, intolerant of 
opposition, and disposed to tyrannise in the hour of vic- 
tory. Between them, and identified with neither, was 
the Kegent of the West, armed with the amnesty which 
on his deathbed Theodosius had charged him to publish, 
and both able and willing to enforce it. ISTevertheless 
the peace thus enforced M^as felt to be nothing but an 
armed neutrality, and perhaps was only maintained in con- 
sequence of the disquieting rumours which reached Italy 
from the north-east; for the Visigoths were moving, and 
no one knew precisely where the storm might burst. It 
was indeed nothing but the precautions taken by Stilicho, 
in the summer of the year a.d. 400, in raising levies and 
strengthening fortifications in the north of Italy, especially 
Brescia, Aquileia, and Eavenna, that saved the country 
from the horrors which it suffered eight years later. For 
in the autumn Alaric did actually cross the Alps, but 
finding everything ready for resistance, returned to Illy- 
ricum whence he came. 

Alaric the Visigoth. — The questions at once occur, 
Who was Alaric % How did he come to be in Illyricum % 



Alaric and t^ce Visigoths 97 

and in wliat capacity was he there ? The Visigoths, as 
we have seen (chap, iii.), driven before the advancing 
Huns, had been compelled to cross the Danube, and after 
winning a great victory and defeating a Roman Emperor 
(a.d. 378), had been settled by Theodosius in Mcesia. The 
ascendancy of his character won their loyalty ; and when 
he left Constantinople in a.d. 394 to engage the insurgent 
forces of Arbogastes in Italy, a large body of their best 
soldiers joined his army. Among them was a young 
chieftain of the family from whom the Visigoths always 
chose their kings, hitherto unknown to fame, named 
Alaric, but afterwards not the least famous of those bar- 
barians whom contact with Eome and Eomans trans- 
formed into civilised men. He was still young ; yet he had 
seen and taken part in all the tragic events of the twenty 
previous years — in the flight before the Huns, in the 
passage of the Danube, in the battle of Adrianople, in the 
ravaging of Thrace and Macedonia. It would have been 
strange had his eyes not been opened to the disorganisa- 
tion of the Empire, and the secret of its weakness ; or 
to the chance of success for an active and able adven- 
turer. Political hatred threw in his way the opportunity 
which otherwise he might long have waited for. It was 
a question of property in provinces. 

Province of Eastern lUyricum. — Up to the reign 
of Theodosius Greece and Macedonia had been part of the 
western half of the Empire, as though annexed to Italy, 
under the name of Eastern Illyricum, separated from 
Western Illyricum, which lay between it and Italy, by 
the river Drinus, a tributary of the Save, It was an 
unnatural arrangement ; for between Greece and Italy 
there was community neither of language nor feeling, 
while the language and literature of Greece had been 
adopted throughout the East. Identity of interest, there- 

ROM. EMP. G 



98 History of the Roman E7npire 

fore, seemed to mark this Illyricum as naturally a pro- 
vince of the East. Moreover, when the Emperor Gratian 
summoned Theodosius from Spain to retrieve the disaster 
of Adrianople, he had handed over to his special charge 
this very province then overrun with victorious Goths, 
in common with the eastern half of the Empire, of 
which he named him Emperor. It was, douhtless, meant 
as a temporary arrangement to meet a temporary danger ; 
hut hy his will Theodosius, in dividing the Empire be- 
tween his sons, assigned Eastern lUyricum (Epirus, Mace- 
donia, Thessaly, and Achaia) to the share of Arcadius, 
and thus completed its severance from the "West. The 
assignment was hailed with equal annoyance in Italy and 
exultation at Constantinople, and increased the already 
bitter feeling existing between the Imperial brothers and 
their ministers, Stilicho and Eufinus. There even seemed 
reason to fear that Honorius or his ministers might try to 
regain by force a province whose loss they so much re- 
sented. Accordingly, Eufinus kept urging Arcadius to 
take military possession of the province at once, and so 
anticipate the danger. But this was easier said than 
done. A large part of the army of the East was in the 
hands of Stilicho. Hence the repeated despatches ad- 
dressed by Arcadius to Honorius, claiming the return of 
these troops. Hence the agitation of both Arcadius and 
Eufinus when Stilicho declared his intention of handing 
them over to Arcadius in ]person. Hence the means 
which they adopted to secure the troops, but to keep 
Stilicho at a distance, and the vengeance which the latter 
took on Eufinus by the hands of Gainas the Goth. But 
before all this actually happened, Eufinus had bethought 
him of possible allies in the Visigoths of Moesia, and 
opened communications with Alaric for that purpose, 
meanwhile sending on two agents of his own to replace 



Alaric and the VisigotJts 99 

tlie governors of Achaia and Thessaly. Alaric was only 
too eager to seize the opportunity for action. Without 
delay, and massing together his own people, and some 
Hunnish and Sarmatian allies from the north of the 
Danube, he burst through the pass of Succi in Mount 
Haemus, and descended into Thrace, his advanced guard 
even appearing before the walls of Constantinople. The 
whole province and capital were panic-stricken, and asked 
in terror what it could mean. It is hard to realise that 
it was only a piece of cunning diplomacy, intended to 
secure the influence and personal safety of Eufinus. Yet 
so it was. Alaric was to approach the capital in warlike 
guise, and Eufinus to have the credit of persuading or 
bribing him to turn away from it. The protection of 
Eufinus would thus seem essential to the safety of Arcadius, 

Alaric in lUyricum. — All turned out as arranged ; 
and when Eufinus suggested that the Visigoths should 
retire, not to Moesia, but to Eastern lUyricum, and occupy 
that, it was, of course, with the idea of placing a strong 
barrier between himself and Stilicho, and it mattered 
little to him that they treated the province as a conquered 
land, and fell to pillaging. 

Stilicho prepares to Attack. — The news created 
a profound impression in Italy. I^ot only was a province 
which the Italians looked upon as by rights their own 
oppressed by barbarians, but it was a province actually 
touching their frontier. Another step and Alaric would 
be in Italy ! But Stilicho was alive, not only to this 
danger, but to the fact that Alaric in this case was a 
puppet in the hands of Eufinus. His resolution, there- 
fore, was soon taken, to carry the war into the enemy's 
country, to drive Alaric out of Greece, and confine him 
once more to Moesia, and then to settle matters witli 
Eufinus in person at Constantinople. E'o time was to be 



100 History of the Roman Empire 

lost. Although it was winter, Stilicho crossed the Alps, 
descended the Rhine to its mouth, inspected the garrisons, 
and withdrew such troops from Gaul, and even from 
Eritain, as he thought might safely be spared. Bitterly 
was their loss regretted a few years later when Picts and 
Scots descended upon Britain, and Yandals, and Burgun- 
dians, and Goths swept through Gaul; but for the 
moment, when he returned with a powerful army at his 
back, all Italy was exultant, and the troops of West and 
East, so lately enemies, fraternised in common devotion to 
Stilicho. 

Alaric, meantime, was overrunning ITorthern Greece 
and levying requisitions. From Macedonia, which was 
exhausted, he had repaired to Thessaly, and there Stilicho 
came up with him (a.d. 396). But while the two armies 
lay confronting each other a letter reached Stilicho from 
Arcadius, calling upon him to abandon Illyricum, to 
leave Alaric alone, and to send the money and troops 
belonging to Arcadius at once to Constantinople. Stilicho, 
unwilling to injure a son of Theodosius, detached Gainas 
with the soldiers and the money for Arcadius, and by his 
means revenged himself on Kufinus. 

Weakened, however, by the withdrawal of a large part 
of his army, Stilicho for the moment was unable to cope 
with Alaric, who, breaking up from his intrenched camp, 
marched at leisure through Thermopylae and Phocis into 
Attica. At Athens the magistrates were politic enough 
to disarm his hostility by submission, to humour his 
superstitious fears of offending their goddess, to flatter 
his vanity by splendid entertainments. And thus Athens, 
her temples, and works of art escaped the pillage which, 
we are told, the Christian monks urged upon Alaric. 

Alaric and Stilicho in Peloponnesus. — Eleusis 
was not so fortunate. Town and temple ahke were 



Alaric and the Visis'oths loi 



<b' 



sacked. Tlie Isthmus was passed with the connivance 
of Gerontius, the governor of Achaia nominated by 
Rufinus j Corinth was in ashes j and Alaric was in full 
march upon Argos and Sparta, when Stilicho, who had 
returned to Italy after the break-up of his army to collect 
reinforcements, was despatched by Honoriuis once more at 
the urgent demand of the Corinthians, and landed in the 
Peloponnesus. He w.as too late to save Corinth; but 
overtook Alaric in the valley of the Eurotas, defeated him 
in a pitched battle, and succeeded eventually in sur- 
rounding the Goths in Mount Erymanthus, north of 
Olympia and Pisa. But Pisa proved the Capua of Stilicho 
and his army. The generals feasted and amused them- 
selves; the soldiers deserted; so that Alaric found no 
difficulty in breaking through their lines, and making 
his escape by way of Corinth and the Isthmus. Mean- 
while, in pursuance of what was now traditional policy, 
Eutropius had offered Alaric the post of "Master-General 
of Eastern Illyricum," on condition of his ceasing hostili- 
ties and retiring at once to Epirus. Thus armed with full 
powers, no sooner did Alaric find himself on the north side 
of the Isthmus than he issued orders as master-general of 
the province to Stilicho to evacuate it, and Stilicho, 
baffled, was forced to acquiesce. But it was a fatal blow 
to his reputation. All hope now of reaching Constanti- 
nople, and making himself regent of the two Empires, was 
at an end. Alaric had gained the right of bidding Stilicho 
evacuate Peloponnesus ; and Stilicho, if he refused, would 
be a " rebel." He embarked with precipitation, and 
landed in Italy. But it was a step which exposed him 
to both ridicule and direct attack. In the East he was 
laughed at; in the West he was accused of ^'treason." 
And there can be no doubt that Alaric's success did 
reveal to the barbarians the extent of their own power. 



102 History of the Roman Empire 

Revolt of G-ildo Suppressed. — And now Eu tropins, 
who had thus cleverly set up a barrier between Italy and 
Constantinople, between Stilicho and himself, was not 
only dreaming of launching these same Goths upon Italy, 
but also of further troubling that unhappy country by 
involving her in war with Africa — his object still being, 
like that of Ruiinus, to keep Stilicho so far occupied at 
home, that he should have no time -to interfere at Constan- 
tinople. Gildo the Moor, Count of Africa, was secretly 
encouraged by Eutropius to transfer the allegiance of the 
province of Africa from the Western to the Eastern 
Empire. Gildo (with ulterior designs of transferring 
Africa to himself) assented, seized the corn fleet about 
to sail for Italy, and threatened to destroy Carthage 
if he were attacked. Eome was at once a prey to terror 
and indignation, and Stilicho's energy taxed to the 
utmost. But the danger was met without much diffi- 
culty; Africa was recovered; Gildo was captured, and 
destroyed himself in prison; and the influence of Stilicho 
in Italy was increased rather than weakened by the 
tact and activity which he showed in meeting the 
emergency. 

Threatened Invasion of Italy. — !N"evertheless there 
were clearly dangers threatening in the immediate future 
greater than any yet faced. Alaric was watching his 
opportunity to descend upon Italy, and Eutropius urging 
him to do so. The province of Illyricum was nearly 
exhausted by constant requisitions ; while the political 
troubles consequent on the faU of Eutropius (a.d. 399) 
left the court of Constantinople neither time nor will to 
trouble itself about the Visigoths. Alaric meanwhile 
was as restless as a wild beast in a cage, a prey to 
opposite feelings. The grandeur of StUicho exasperated 
him. Why was it Stilicho rather than himself ! At 



Alaric and the 'Visigoths 103 

one time lie was possessed with, tlie idea of falling upon 
Italy, violating the eternal city, and making himself an 
awful name by some terrible deed. At another, the 
majesty of Eome subdued him, and he yearned to be 
a Eoman, the foremost of Romans ! But beneath all 
moods there was the same agitation and excitement — an 
agitation which spread wherever he went, and in the 
barbarian world was like fire in stubble. Disquieting 
rumours filled the air, and Stilicho was thoroughly 
alarmed. Urgent orders were sent to Gaul for reinforce- 
ments, the walls of Eome were repaired, and the forti- 
fications of Eavenna prepared to shelter the Emperor and 
his court in case of need. Perhaps the worst sign of all 
was the attitude of the Italian population. Courage and 
patriotism seemed to have vanished. The calm despair 
of the Christians was not so spiritless as the abject terror 
of the superstitious, who saw signs and portents every- 
where, or as the craven selfishness of the well-to-do, who 
withdrew in crowds, anxious only to be quit of Italy ! 
Even Honorius was only deterred by the personal influ- 
ence of Stilicho from placing tbe Alps between himself and 
Alaric, and from inaugurating a new capital at Aries or 
Lyons. In the meantime (spring of a.d. 402) disturbances 
had already broken out among the barbarian levies in 
Ehoitia, fomented by Alaric ; and the war there languished 
during the summer; for Alaric was on the alert, and 
Stilicho, whose presence alone could have finished the 
matter, was afraid to leave Milan and the Emperor unde- 
fended while he crossed the Alps. At last he had no 
longer any choice. Leaving Milan strongly garrisoned, 
he hastened across the Alps, pacified the province by his 
mere name and presence, and returned by forced marches 
to Italy with strong reinforcements, hoping to arrive 
before Alaric had time to hear of his absence. Alaric 



104 History of the Roi7ian Empire 

had spies in plenty ; and no sooner was lie informed of 
Stiliclio's departure, than he passed the Julian Alps — 
passed hy the towns of Yenetia and Upper Italy, and 
made a rapid dash upon Milan. His hope was to capture 
Honorius. But rapid as were his movements, Stilicho 
was yet faster. The Visigoths had not yet crossed the 
Adda, when he descended the southern slopes of the Alps 
uuder the cover of night, and in the thousand watch- 
fires that gleamed like stars across the plain below him, 
read the story of Alaric's advance and Honorius's danger. 
Pushing on with a small escort, he dashed through the 
river under a shower of darts from the enemy's sentinels 
(which in the darkness happily missed their aim), and by 
morning light was under the walls of Milan. Claudian, 
his friend and panegyrist, describes the cries of triumph 
which welcomed him, and the joy at the sight of the 
well-known grey head ; for the city was now safe. Alaric 
retreated with as much speed as he had come, not halting 
till he reached Venetia ; while Stilicho provided, as best 
he could, for the immediate protection of Italy by con- 
veying the Emperor to the shelter of the impregnable 
morasses of Eavenna, and by covering the roads to Eome. 
But it was impossible for the Visigoths to remain in 
Venetia, where the toAvns were shut against them, and 
the country inundated. Eetreat or advance they must — 
retreat to Illyricum, or advance where fortune led 
them ! 

Battle of Pollentia — a.d. 403. — In spite of opposi- 
tion and warning, Alaric resolved to advance — moved by 
the conviction (if we may believe Claudian) ^ that he was 

••■ Non somnia nolDis 
Nee volucres, sed clara palam vox edita luco est : 
" Eumpe omnes, Alarice, moras : hoc impiger anno 
Mpibus Italise ruptis penetrabis ad Urbem." 

Lc Bd. Get. v. 544. 



Alaric and the Visigoths 105 

destined to see Eome. He professed to liave heard a 
voice bidding him march without delay. Breaking up 
from Yenetia he moved westward, avoiding Milan, and 
followed at a short distance by Stilicho. He entered 
Liguria, crossed the Po, and at last halted at PoUentia, 
about twenty-five miles south-west of Turin, whence he 
could march either east or west — on Eome if victorious 
in the coming battle, on Gaul if defeated. On April 5th, 
403, the two armies faced one another, Alaric's flanks 
and rear being protected by a forest, which then lined 
the banks of the river Tanarus, and by a little stream 
strangely named "Urbis,"^ while Stilicho lay between 
him and Gaul. The next day was Easter Sunday; and, 
as though by mutual consent, a suspension of arms seemed 
to be agreed upon between the leaders, when on a sudden 
the silence was broken by shouts and cries, and fighting 
was seen to have begun. In Stilicho's army was a con- 
tingent of Goths, led by a pagan named Saiil; and it 
appears that, moved either by contempt for their Christian 
scruples, or a desire to take vengeance on his renegade 
Christian countrymen, or a fear of losing so favourable an 
opportunity of attack, Saiil had fallen suddenly on the 
Yisigoths in his front, reckless of consequences. Th(3 
battle once begun soon became general, and raged along 
the whole line. It was, however, very nearly lost by 
Stilicho at the outset. Por the leader of a contingent 
of Alani, whose fidelity was mistrusted by Stilicho, 
resenting the doubt, put himself at the head of his men, 
and led them in a desperate charge, regardless of orders, 
on the very centre of the Visigoths. A furious melee 
ensued, from which but few escaped, their leader having 
barely strength sufiicient to present himself before Stilicho, 
and drop dead at his feet. It was very magnificent, 
- Pervenit ad fluvium (miri coguominis) Urbem. — Ih. ib. 555. 



io6 History of the Roman Empire 

but it was not " war." For Stiliclio had the utmost diffi- 
culty in restoring the balance of his line, and in rally- 
ing the fugitives from the charge. But the union of 
skill and obstinate courage at last won the day, and when 
the Eoman centre succeeded in reaching the waggons, 
containing the wives, children, and booty of the Goths, 
the day was practically won; and Alaric retreated along 
the Tanarus towards Asta, leaving in the conqueror's 
hands his wife and children, — treasures of gold, and 
vases and statues, the spoil of Greece, with a crowd 
of Italian and Greek prisoners, who were thus restored 
to liberty. Too wise to drive his enemy to despair, 
Stiliclio pursued, but offered terms. Alaric agreed to eva- 
cuate Italy, but there was fierce disappointment in his 
heart, and the pangs of wounded pride, for he had been 
defeated by the man of whom in all the world he R^as 
most jealous. Above all, he writhed at the thought of 
returning in this guise to Illyricum. He would make 
one more throw for victory, and so, despite agreements, 
he seized Verona as he passed eastward, and prepared to 
hold it desperately. But famine and discontent obliged 
him to give it up, and at last (after some further fruitless 
struggles) to cross the Alps once more, and to abandon 
Italy for a while. 

Inroad of Radagaisus — a.d. 405. — It was but a 
brief respite, however, that was thus won from danger. 
And the next enemy that threatened Italy was not an 
Alaric, but worse. Alaric was at least a Christian and 
semi-civilised. Eadagaisus was a pagan, and utter bar- 
barian. Whatever may have been the cause — whether 
exhaustion of their own lands, or more probably pressure 
from the Huns in the north-east — there suddenly appeared 
in A.D. 405, and surged over into Italy, a huge wave (so to 
call it) of men, women, and children, mostly Yandals? 



Alaric and the VisigotJis 107 

numbering at the lowest estimate 200,000 lightirig men, 
and led by a Goth, whose name w^as borrowed from a 
Slavonic deity, Eadegast, the god of war and hospitality. 
At the same time, another division of the same army passed 
along the valley of the Danube, crossed the Ehine, and 
precipitated itself upon Gaul. For this sudden inroad 
Stilicho was wholly unprepared, and was forced to take 
shelter behind the fortifications of Pavia, and watch for 
an opportunity of attack. Eadagaisus meanwhile had 
crossed the Po and the Apennines, and was making straight 
for Eome, whose inhabitants he had vowed to sacrifice to 
his gods ; and Eome trembled for her safety. But once 
more Stilicho was equal to the emergency. It is needless 
to dwell upon the skill with which he intercepted the 
vast mass of human beings on their descent from the hills, 
and succeeded in enclosing them with an intrenched camp 
near Florence, .till half their number had fallen by famine 
and pestilence, and the residue who surrendered were 
sold as slaves. It is more curious to remark, though it 
is no isolated case in history, that this victory of courage, 
patience, and skill was claimed by the Christians as a 
manifest interposition of God himself, and as designed to 
confound their pagan countrj^'men at Eome ! And as a 
matter of fact it became the occasion of an outburst of 
fanaticism on both sides and of religious hatred, which 
involved even Stilicho himself. Moderation is always a 
virtue more praised than valued; and Stilicho's modera- 
tion as a political, and toleration as a religious ruler, 
exposed him to bitter attacks from both Christians and 
pagans. So unsparing, persistent, and ingenious, how- 
ever, were the charges brought against him or insinuated, 
that it is difficult to believe he did not partly deserve 
them, until we realise the despicable character of the 
people whom it was his ill-fortune to have to rule, and 



io8 History of the Roman Empire 

who seemed long ago to liave lost all courage and self- 
respect. His son Eucherius was accused of being a pagan ; 
lie himself of an intention of placing that son on the 
throne of the childless Honorius. His enemies forgot, 
apparently, that the two charges were in reality destruc- 
tive of each other, and that if Eucherius were a pagan. 
Christian opposition would prevent his being Emperor. 
^STevertheless, the charges were made, and served to alarm 
alike the court and the Christians. J^or was this all. 
The "semi-barbarian" (as Jerome calls Stilicho) was 
accused of " treason," in having denuded Gaul of her 
soldiers on purpose to expose her to the fury of Alani, 
Suevi, and Vandals, and to be better able in the general 
confusion to seize the Empire. And not only was pohti- 
cal and religious feeling thus dexterously irritated by 
Stilicho's enemies, but the old jealousy between E-omans 
and non-Eomans, between Italians and barbarians, burst 
out afresh, and even threatened to issue in bloodshed, 
and Stilicho was accused of a partiality of which he had 
shown himself incapable, and of showing favour only to 
barbarians j and, worse still, barbarians who were Arians 
and heretics ! Such were the flimsy accusations in which 
the jealousy of some, the ingratitude of others, and the 
fatal fanaticism of all alike found expression. All they 
needed was a spokesman and leader; and of course they 
found one. 

Olympius. — Among the officers of the palace was a 
man named Olympius, who owed his fortune to Stilicho- 
a maa whose ambition was veiled by simplicity of life, 
and his incapacity by exceeding godliness. He was the 
trusted agent of bishops andEmperor, and became the main- 
spring of the growing conspiracy against Stilicho. And 
at this moment it was that the latter inadvertently gave 
a handle to his enemies which they were not slow to use. 



Alaric and the Visigoths 109 

He liad Leen struck by the tenacity and boldness sbown 
by Alaric in tbe late campaign; and, appalled by tlie 
perils of the Empire, he resolved, with Honorins' consent, 
to enlist Alaric as an ally rather than to meet him as a 
foe, and either to entrust him with the reconquest of 
Gaul, or to recover Illyricum by making him governor in 
Honorius' name. Accordingly he opened negotiations, 
and a meeting was arranged in Epirus. At the last 
moment, however, when on the eve of starting, a peremp- 
tory order from Honorius forbade his leaving Italy — ^at 
whose instance is obvious. Patriotic feeling (so called) 
was strongly roused by the rumour of these negotiations. 
One more false step completed his ruin. 

Murder of Stilicho. — On the death of Arcadius in 
A.D. 408, Honorius resolved to visit Constantinople, and 
set in order the affairs of the Eastern Empire on behalf 
of the infant Theodosius. In view of the difficulty and 
expense of so long a journey, Stilicho strongly urged 
Honorius to stay in Italy, and offered to go himself in 
his place. Here was an opening little expected. " See," 
said his enemies, " the ambition of the man ! Will it 
not be easy at Constantinople to make away with the 
helpless Theodosius % And then, as Emperor of the East, 
with Alaric as ally and lieutenant, perhaps he may return 
to conquer the West." The terror of Honorius, thus art- 
fully excited, was increased by a military riot which broke 
out during his presence at Pavia, and in which high 
functionaries, courtiers, generals alike were massacred. 
Olympius seized the opportunity, and secured Honorius' 
signature to an order for the death of Stilicho. The 
regent was warned of his danger, but could hardly bring 
himself to believe in such treachery, although, after a 
night attack upon his camp, in which he barely escaped, 
he judged it prudent to retire to Eavenna and take sane- 



1 10 History of the Roman Empire 

tuary in a cliurcli. From tlience, like Eutropius, lie was 
lured by false promises. The officer in command of the 
troops sent to arrest him assured Stilicho that he was 
only charged to take good care of him ; but no sooner did 
the regent leave the church than the officer drew forth a 
second despatch, which he read aloud in the hearing of 
all, ordering the immediate execution of the " public 
enemy, Stilicho the patrician." Friends, clients, soldiers 
closed round him at once as one man, and prepared to 
defend him; but as noble in death as he had been in life, 
this "last of the Eomans" refused to save his own life at 
the expense of others, and, kneeling down on the spot 
where he was, gave his neck to the sword of the execu- 
tioner (August, A.D. 408). 

It is difficult to think with patience of such an ending 
of a really great life ; that the man who gave peace to 
Italy, and restored honour to her senate and glory to her 
arms, and twice saved Eome from capture, should have 
been deliberately murdered by those who owed him so 
much. It was a fitting retribution that in one day 30^000 
brave men, who under his auspices had fought and bled 
for Eome, marched ojff to join Alaric in lUyricum, and 
that three months afterwards Alaric was at the gates of 
Eome. 

Reaction in Italy. — Then followed the hateful 
animosities of a time of " reaction," when it is thought 
'' policy" to seize the utmost advantage of a brief superi- 
ority. Stilicho' s murder was followed by that of the 
wives and children of his barbarian soldiers, kept as 
hostages in the towns of Italy. Serena fled to Eome. 
Eucherius, her son, was there beheaded before her eyes ; 
and her daughter Thermantia, whom Honorius had married 
after Maria's death, was repudiated and sent to her mother. 
A widespread confiscation followed of the property of his 



Alaric arid the Visiscoths 1 1 1 



'ii' 



friends and (as Ms enemies called them) "satellites," 
even the poet Claudian being involved in the persecution 
and reduced to penury. Eeligious animosity again blazed 
out, now the strong hand was removed, and Catholic 
bishops and fathers acquiesced in a " persecution " which 
tended to unity. Il^or did a spurious and exclusive 
" patriotism" forget to avail itself of so useful a handle 
as this religious bigotry. ^Non-Catholic officers — that is, 
nearly all the barbarians — ^were forbidden to appear at 
court in the military belt which was their badge of office ; 
and wh^n they resigned rather than submit to such a 
slight, Eomans and Italians stepped with light hearts 
into their places. But the effect of all this was fatal — 
disorganisation, fear, and enmity, in the face of dangers 
more terrible than any which had yet threatened Italy. 

Alaric Marches on Rome — a.d. 408. — Alaric had 
been joined by thousands of veteran barbarians, whose 
best feelings had been outraged by the slaughter of their 
wives and children. These men clamoured for revenu'e. 
His army was further strengthened by large reinforcements 
from the Danube. H^ was in a position, therefore, to 
influence th« politics of the Empire, whose ally he claimed 
to be ; and a man of his ability and ambition could not 
fail to see how great was the opportunity. His demands 
were moderate, extending only to the payment of expenses 
incurred in preparation for the campaign proposed by 
Stilicho in Gaul or Greene. But this foolish court, wrapt up 
in petty party questions, which had lost its best troops and 
offended its best generals, mistook his modesty for weak- 
ness, and ignored his demands; and when the offended 
king revenged himself in his own way and appeared sud- 
denly in Italy, it was helpless; and, while covering 
Eavenna with troops, left Italy and Eome to their fate. 
Aquileia, Altinum, Cremona being passed and the Po 



112 History of the Roman Empire 

crossed, Alaric vainly offered battle to the Imperial troops 
at Eavenna; and after ravaging the coast of the Adriatic 
as far as Picennm, struck up into the Apennines, and 
following the Flaminian Way, arrived without opposition 
beneath the walls of Eonie. 

First Siege of Rome. — It was more than 600 years 
since a foreign enemy had been there, and Hannibal had 
advanced so far only to retreat. It is hardly strange that 
Alaric, as he approached the sacred city, should have 
been torn by conflicting feelings, and even have doubted 
whether to spare or to destroy. To the city itself his sudden 
appearance was like the falling of a thunderbolt in a clear 
sky. So utter was the disorganisation throughout Italy, 
so indolent and careless the Government, that the Eomans 
knew nothing of an invasion of the Yisigoths till the fugi- 
tives told of their approach, and could only account for 
their unopposed advance by the supposition of " treason." 
A victim was demanded, and found in the hapless Serena, 
who was accused, found guilty, and strangled. But 
neither god nor demon was propitiated by the sacrifice, 
and the blockade continued. Ere long scarcity became 
absolute famine, and famine was followed by pestilence. 
At last, abandoned by the Imperial Government, the 
Senate resolved to throw themselves on the clemency of 
the Gothic leader whoever he might be— for even of this 
they were ignorant. Two ambassadors were despatched 
with orders to say that the Eomans wished indeed for 
peace, \>vX were ready for war, — an innumerable multitude 
ready armed. " So much the better," broke in Alaric, 
with a laugh; " the thicker the hay, the easier it is 
mown." As for conditions of peace, he demanded all the 
gold, silver, movables, and foreign slaves to be found in 
Eome. "And what then, king," asked one of the 
amazed ambassadors, " wilt thou leave us for ourselves?" 



A laric and the Visigoths 113 

" Your lives," lie answered. The discovery that it was 
Alaric hefore the walls redoubled the terror of both Senate 
and people. A second embassy was sent without delay 
to obtain, if possible, less rigorous terms ; and Alaric at 
last consented to accept 5,000 lb of gold, 30,*000 5> of 
silver, 4,000 silken robes, 3,000 purple cloths, 3,000 ft of 
spices. It was the last drop in the cup of Eome's misery, 
half pagan as she was, that to raise this sam it was neces- 
sary to strip the temples and the statues of the gods, and 
even to melt down the statue of " Yirtus." Well might 
the pagan historian say, " All was over." 

Negotiations for Peace. — The withdrawal of Alaric 
from Eome was followed by protracted negotiations for 
peace, in which, as before, his real or studied moderation 
only invited insult from the contemptible favourites of 
Honorius. His demands were limited to the of&ce of 
master-general of the West, an annual subsidy of corn 
and money, and a kingdom to be carved out of the pro- 
vinces of Dalmatia, ^N'oricum, and Venetia; and three 
senators were sent afc his request to Eavenna from Eome 
to conclude the treaty. One of them was named Prisons 
Attains, an Ionian by birth, and afterwards for a short 
time Emperor. Affable, brilliant, eloquent, yet unstable, 
ambitious, and spoiled by success — a freethinker and a 
master of erotic poetry — this man was no bad type of the 
noblemen of the day. The court party at Eavenna enter- 
tained the ambassadors, ridiculed their fears, and finally 
sent them away empty, l^ot long afterwards a second 
embassy was sent for the same purpose, one member of 
which was Pope Innocent. Meanwhile a chamber revo- 
lution at Eavenna had replaced Olympius by a certain 
Jovius as chief favourite. This man was personally 
acquainted with Alaric, and trusted to being able to 
arrange matters in a personal interview. They met at 

ROM. EMP. Q 



1 14 History of the Roman Empire 

Ariminum. Alaric demanded, as before, the master- 
generalship, and Jovius pressed Honorius to bestow it. 
The Imperial answer was brief, but to the point. Jovius, 
as prsefect, might arrange as he pleased about pensions 
and supplies, but that neither to Alaric nor to any of his 
race should ever be given any military function or dignity 
whatsoever. Alaric's answer was equally pithy. The 
"route" was given for Eome. 

Second Siege of Rome — a.d. 409. — This time, 
however, instead of assaulting the capital he seized the 
"Port" of Ostia, the granary of Eome — a magnificent 
harbour with three great basins, the work of the Emperor 
Claudius, to which 'the corn of Africa was brought, 
and stored ready for transport in barges up the Tiber. 
Master of Ostia, he was master of Eome ; for without 
Ostia Eome must starve. The Senate obeyed Alaric's 
instructions, and elected the praefect Attains Emperor in 
the room of Honorius; and the new Emperor at once 
named Alaric master-general of the armies of the West. 
The nominee of the Senate was accepted without difficulty 
in the greater part of Italy. But the elevation of Attains 
to the Empire was as degrading to the West as that of 
Eutropius to the consulate had been to the East ; and 
ere long his evident incapacity made his cause so hope- 
less, that he was thrown over by his patron, publicly 
despoiled of the Imperial insignia, and contemptuously 
allowed to retire into private life. His purple and diadem 
were sent by Alaric as a pledge of reconciliation and 
friendship to Honorius. And now it might have seemed 
that the last real obstacle to peace was removed, and that 
Italy would now have rest. But while negotiations were 
still pending with the court of Eavenna, Alaric learned 
that a personal enemy of his own, Sarus the Goth, w^ho 
but a few days before had attacked liis escort and nearly 



Alaric and the Visigoths 115 

succeeded in seizing himself, was closeted with. Honorius. 
The inference to Alaric seemed obvious that a plot was 
on foot of which he was the object, for the experience of 
the last five years had made him suspicious. Infuriated 
at this last proof of Imperial perfidy he hesitated no 
longer. Once more the Yisigoths were marching upon 
Eome, and the fate of Rome was sealed. 

Third Siege and Sack of Rome — ^a.d. 410.— 
Senate and people alike knew now that there was no hope 
save in themselves. And for a while behind the shelter 
of Anrelian's walls they stoutly resisted all attacks; 
but famine is a foe whom none can resist, and a pitiless 
blockade brought famine and pestilence in its train. The 
suffering was awful. At last, on the night of August 24, 
by some unknown hand, the Porta Salaria was opened 
from within, and the Goths marched in with braying 
trumpets and savage shouts. The adjoining houses were 
fired at once, and the flames told the secret to the startled 
city. It is said that as Alaric passed the gate an inward ter- 
ror troubled him; for to him, like many another barbarian, 
the name of " Eome" had been a fascination, — Rome, the 
capital of the world, the city of the apostles. He gave 
strict orders, therefore, whatever else was done, to spare the 
churches of St. Peter and St. PauL The flames meanwhile 
marched as fast or faster than the Goths, and often 
parents and children had much ado to escape in time 
from their houses into the streets. And in the streets was 
a foe hardly less cruel than the fire, already drunk with 
lust and wine. Children and eiders, women and men, 
poor and rich, all fared alike. As if to add to the horror 
of the scene, a terrific storm burst over the capital, and 
the lightning flash which revealed the surging crowd below, 
struck house, or temple, or statue, strewing the very Forum 
with ruins, and seeming to presage to the afirighted 



1 16 History of the Roman Empire 

pagans the departure of tlie gods themselves. Amid the 
awful terrors of that night — violence, rapine, and murder 
— two places of refuge alone gave effectual protection to 
the fleeing crowds, the two churches named above, which 
were thronged with ever - increasing numbers, — even 
pagans in their extremity bartering honour for safety, and 
assuming for the nonce the guise of Christians. But 
indeed the sack of Eome was the extinction of paganism, 
whose centre and focus was thus destroyed. The estates 
of the Eoman patricians were desolated ; whole families 
were carried into exile ; many of the old ancestral houses 
disappeared for ever ; and the coasts of Italy, Africa, and 
the East swarmed with the fugitives. But Christian 
Rome rose on the ruins of pagan Rome \ and Alaric was 
an unwitting instrument in the elevation of the Bishop of 
Rome to power. Henceforth beyond dispute the greatest 
man in Rome was the Pope. 

Death of Alaric — a.d. 410. — For three days and 
nights the sack of the city lasted. Then the Goths marched 
southward, and ravaged Campania, Lucania, and Calabria. 
The sight of Rhegium in flames might even warn the 
Sicilians of what they had to expect. But if (as is said) 
Alaric really contemplated the conquest of Sicily as a 
step towards the conquest of Carthage, his wishes were 
efi'ectually prevented by the destruction of his fleet of 
transports in a sudden storm, and by his own premature 
death, the cause of which is unknown. He was honoured 
by the Goths with a worthy burial. Fearful lest ven- 
geance should be wreaked on his remains if the place 
of his burial were known, they diverted the little river 
Basentinus from its course; built in its bed a royal 
sepulchre, filled with treasures and spoils from Rome; 
placed therein the dead hero ; and after turning the 
river into its old course, slew the captives who had per- 



Alaric and the Visigoths 117 

formed the work. A worthy end of a life so strange and 
wilful ! 

Succeeded by Ataulf and Wallia. — After his 
death the Yisigoths chose Ataulf his brother-in-law as 
king, who married Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius 
by his second wife Galla. He entered into an engage- 
ment with Honorius to carry out what had been proposed 
before, and led his people over the Alps into Gaul and 
Spain to fight the Vandals and Alani, who (since a.d. 406) 
had overrun those provinces. Ataulf was assassinated at 
Barcelona in a.d. 415 j but his work was carried on by his 
successor, "Wallia, under whose auspices the Visigoths were 
settled in Aquitaine (a.d. 419), their final home, and the 
royal residence fixed at Toulouse. They were a new and 
powerful influence in the Eoman province of Gaul, and 
largely affected its subsequent history. 



CHAPTER VI L 
GENSERIC AND THE VANDALS— A.D. 423-533. 

Events following the Death of Honorius — 
A.D. 423. — Honorius died in a.d. 423. The fifty-three years 
which, elapsed between his death and the destruction of 
Italian independence were years full of trouble and dis- 
grace. Italy was nominally ruled by a succession of 
cyphers, puppets in the hands of men stronger than 
themselves. Moesia, Thrace, lUyricum, Gaul, and even 
Northern Italy, were overrun by the Huns. Africa was 
conquered by the Yandals. Eome was twice pillaged. 
It was a time of blind confusion, when law meant the 
wiU of the strongest, and every man's hand was against 
his neighbour. The first part of this chapter will be 
devoted to giving a brief sketch of Italian history during 
these years, in order to show clearly the crippled state of the 
Empire, which had to sustain a desperate struggle with 
Genseric in the south and with Attila in the north almost 
at the same time. In the latter part will be narrated the 
attack of Genseric on Eome. 

Valentinian III. — a.d. 423-455. — Honorius was 
succeeded by Yalentinian III., a child of six years old, 
the son of his half-sister Placidia, who became regent. 
Placidia had had a wide experience of life. Married to 
Ataulf the Visigoth, whom she accompanied to Gaul and 



Genseric and the Vandals 119 

Spain, sTie returned after his murder to Italy, and married 
Constantius, Ly whom she became the mother of Honoria 
and Yalentinian. On his death (a.d. 421), and in con- 
sequence of a quarrel with Honorius, she withdrew to 
Constantinople, where the kind conduct of Theodosius II. 
(a.d. 408-450) doubtless induced her to think of the 
marriage afterwards arranged between Yalentinian and 
Eudoxia. Moreover, Western Illyricum was ceded to the 
Eastern Empire, in acknowledgment of her courteous 
reception and of the aid given her in securing her son's 
position. A woman in power, however, has always a 
difficult place to fill; and Placidia was no exception to 
the rule. She was jealous of all rivals, and studiously 
asserted her own supremacy at her son's court, even when 
he was nominally Emperor. I^or was her task rendered 
more easy by the mutual jealousy of Aetius and Boniface, 
the foremost soldiers of the day. The latter had proved 
his fidelity; the former had shown himself an untrust- 
worthy time-server. Yet Placidia allowed herself to be 
cajoled by Aetius into the belief that Boniface was a dan- 
gerous conspirator. She ordered him to return from 
Africa, while at the same time Aetius persuaded him 
that to obey orders and leave Africa was equivalent to a 
sentence of death. Eearing the consequences of dis- 
obedience, Boniface looked round for an ally, and seemed 
to find one in Genseric the Yandal, ruler of Spain. It 
was a fatal alliance, fraught with bitter results to himself, 
the province, and the capital; and it indirectly precipi- 
tated the attack of Attila upon Gaul. Erom this last 
evil, indeed, Italy and the Emperor were saved by the 
courage of Pope Leo and the tactics of Aetius ; yet in his 
case, as in Stilicho's, although the Church claimed for Leo 
all the glory of the victory over " the scourge of God," 
Yalentinian was none the less jealous of the real victor's 



T 20 History of the Roman Empire 

reputation. Aetius was murdered by tlie Emperor's own 
hand. Eetribution, however, followed close upon the 
act, for the Emperor was assassinated by two of Aetius' 
domestics at the instigation of his successor on the throne 
(March 16, 455). 

Petronius Maximus — a.d. 455. — This successor was 
Petronius Maximus, a Roman senator, who lived scarcely 
three months to enjoy his triumph. He had compelled 
Eudoxia, Yalentinian's widow, to marry himj and she, 
enraged at the insult, and hating the man who had insti- 
gated her husband's murder, made secret overtures to 
Genseric in Africa, and besought him to set her free. 
Thus she avenged Yalentinian, it is true, but she ruined 
Pome. Maximus was torn to pieces by a street mob, 
and Pome was sacked. 

Last Twenty Years of the Western Empire 
— A.D, 455-475. — Of his eight successors on the Imperial 
throne, it is hard to say which was least worthy. Avitus 
(a.d. 455), Majorian (a.d. 457), Severus (a.d. 461), 
Anthemius (a.d. 467), Olybrius (a.d. 472), Glycerias 
(a.d. 473), JSTepos (a.d. 474), and Pomulus Augus- 
tulus (a.d. 475) — it is a mere string of names ! 
One name, indeed, there is which does not figure in the 
muster-roll of Emperors, yet towers above them all, that 
of Picimer. Like almost all the military men of the fifth 
century, he was a barbarian. His father was of the royal 
family of the Suevi j his mother's father was that Wallia 
who had settled the Visigoths in Aquitaine. And if it 
seems strange that this man should have been paramount 
for some sixteen years, and have actually nominated three 
Emperors, and yet not have seized the Empire for him- 
self, we may remember that during 500 years of Imperial 
history no barbarian had dared to sit on the Imperial 
throne, with the one exception of Maximin the Goth 



Genseric and the Vandals 1 2 1 

(a.d. 235), wlio, nominated Emperor by soldiers in revolt, 
was never recognised by the Senate, and never set foot 
in Italy. Eicimer bas been compared to Sulla — a com- 
parison bardly fair to tbe former. Though hard and un- 
scrupulous, he was not cruel in cold blood. Glycerius 
was nominated by Gundobald the Burgundian; Anthe- 
mius and IlTepos were Greeks, appointed by the Eastern 
Emperor Leo ; Eomulus by his father Orestes, who claims 
something more than a mere passing notice. In a period rife 
with adventurers, no life perhaps presented stranger con- 
trasts than his. He was born at Pettau in Illyriu, — a 
man (hke Eufinus) supple rather than able, and possessed 
of more experience than honesty. While Pannonia was 
Roman, he was Eoman also ; when Aetius permitted 
its occupation by Huns, he ceased to be Eoman, and 
served Attila faithfully as secretary. On Attila's death 
he repaired to Italy, once more a Eoman, there to spend 
his share of the pillage of the Empire; and he knew 
how to wait upon events. When a hard fate compelled 
IS'epos to abandon Auvergne to the Visigoths, already in 
possession of Aquitaine and the greater part of Spain — in 
other words, to abandon the provinces beyond the Alps, 
except Narbonne — Orestes skilfully fomented the general 
discontent. When Nepos fled from Italy to escape the 
vengeance of the army, Orestes made no sign, but waited 
patiently till events (as he foresaw) should throw the 
Imperial power into his hands. Then he placed his son, 
a mere boy of thirteen, upon the throne, the more easily 
to retain the reins of power himself. Bat, like many 
another, he found it easier to raise than to rule the storm. ; 
and the same military discontent, by which he had raised 
himself to power, was as fatal to him as to his predecessor. 
As their reward for serving him, the army demanded one- 
third of the land of Italy ; and when Orestes shrank from 



122 History of the Roman Empire 

bringing misery so great on an unoffending people, they 
transferred their allegiance to a man not less able and much 
less scrupulous, Odoacer, son of Edecon, the Herulian. 
Orestes fell, and with him the independence of Italy. 
\ The Transition — a.d. 450-500. — ^The last fifty years 
of the fifth century were indeed a strange period — a time 
of transition, full of odd contrasts and surprises; when 
the old forms of government and of nations were slowly 
passing away, while the spirit of Imperial Eome, her 
language, laws, and thoughts, were slowly modifying the 
character of her barbarian conquerors. Amid the general 
confusion, however, one body of men beyond all others 
challenges our admiration, the Christian bishops and clergy 
— the only men (not barbarians) who showed courage in 
danger, the only men who seem to have had "ideas." 
Among so many it will suffice to name Innocent and Leo 
of Eome— Augustine of Hippo — Epiphanius of Pavia — 
Anianus of Orleans — and, not least, that Severinus who, by 
the simple exercise of courage, wisdom, and charity, reduced 
order out of chaos in Noricum, and became saint and 
teacher, ruler and judge alike of Eomans and barbarians. 
The Vandals. — ^The history of the Yandals in con- 
nection with the Empire is even more dramatic than that 
of the Huns. The mere extent of country which from first 
to last they traversed is as marvellous as the wanderings of 
the Arabs in the seventh century. And the way in which 
their name and nation vanished in the sixth century is not 
less wonderful than the similar fate of the Carthaginians 
whose land they had possessed, or of the Ostrogoths in 
Italy. One province of Spain alone recalls their name, 
Andalusia. 

Their Migrations— a.d. 330-429.— In Chapter IIL 
it was related how the Yandals had gradually worked 
their way southwards from the region of the Elbe and 



Genseric and the Vandals 123 

Vistula, until Constantine settled them in Pannonia about 
A.D. 330. There for seventy years they remained, and 
were converted to the Arian form of Christianity; until at 
last, compelled by hunger or by pressure from other tribes, 
they joined the Suevi and Alani in a sudden descent upon 
Gaul (a.d. 406), at the same time that Eadagaisus was 
threatening Florence and Eome. ThcK coming was as that 
of a swarm of locusts, and resistance was hopeless. From 
Mainz and Strasburg to Amiens and Tournay, and thence 
southward to Aquitaine and Narbonn e, the whole country 
was swept by them. But in less than three years, being 
hard pressed by another Constantine, whom the legions of 
Britain had named Emperor, and who was supported by the 
Frank confederation, they crossed the Pyrenees into Spain 
(a.d. 409), and repeated on Spanish soil the devastations 
they had already caused in Caul. Spain has gone through 
many a fiery trial, but never a worse one than that of the 
opening years of the fifth century. Army after army, 
enemy after enemy marched through, fought in, and lived 
upon the unhappy country. The three confed erate nations 
divided the land between them, — a division recognised 
by the Emperor Honorius in a.d. 412. But that this was 
a concession wrung from weakness, and not an honourable 
recognition of accomplished facts, is clear from the insin- 
cere reservation accompanying it, that the ordinary legal 
prescription of thirty years constituting ownership was 
not to apply to the case in question I This was bad; but 
it was worse when Eotnan jealousy of any government 
better and abler than its own (and under Yandal rule Spain 
had become fertile and Spaniards rich and contented) 
brought Visigoths from over the Pyrenees to fall upon 
the Vandals, no doubt with the secret hope that both 
would at least be weakened in the struggle, and one might 
perhaps be destroyed (a.d. 41 6). The Vandali Silingi were 



1 24 History of the Roman Empire 

indeed destroyed, and the Alani so roughly handled that 
they united themselves to the rest of the Yandals (whose 
king took the title of King of the Yandali and Alani), 
and retired to the south, while the Suevi were confined 
to the north-western districts. Spain returned once more 
to at least a nominal allegiance to Eomej and "Wallia the 
Yisigoth was rewarded by the honour of a " triumph" iu 
Eome, and by the grant of Aquitaine, — a grant which 
formed the basis of the great Yisigothic kingdom, that 
eventually included all the south of Gaul and nearly the 
whole of Spain (a.d. 470). But the allegiance of Spain to 
Eome was brief, and in fifteen years the Yandals were once 
more masters of the country (a.d. 423). Eoman perfidy, 
moreover, seems to have called out all the worst side of 
what had been a noble character, and the six years which 
ensued were marked by a ferocity justifying perhaps the 
use of the term " Yandalism." The country was pillaged, 
and the Catholic clergy and people persecuted. 

Genseric King — a.d. 428. — This pillage and persecu- 
tion appears to have been due to a man whose name 
aroused as much horror as that of Attila the Hun. This 
was Genseric (or Gheiseric), the bastard half-brother of 
Gonderic, who reigned until a.d. 428. He was short in 
stature, and had been lamed by a fall from his horse. 
A man of few words and powerful intellect — of rare 
self-command, but terrible when roused, his character 
seems to have made a profound impression on his 
contemporaries. Scorning luxury and indulgence, yet 
devoured by avarice, he had one passion and one purpose 
iu life, gold; and in pursuit of it he was impassive, cold, 
pitiless. And in this respect he compares badly with 
Attila, who at least had the instincts of a warrior and 
conqueror, who loved the fever of battle and the glory of 
victory as other men love peace, while Genseric was a 



Gens eric and the Vandals 125 

mere robber and pirate. The one would have sighed with 
Alexander for more worlds to conquer, the other for more 
towns to pillage. 

Invasion of Africa — a.d. 429. — Genseric succeeded 
his brother Gonderic in a.d. 428. He had already become 
aware that it would be more difficult to hold than it had 
been to conquer Spain. The population itself was quite 
Roman in feeling, and would resent the rule of a bar- 
barian; while the Visigoths lay close to his northern 
frontier, a nation stronger than his own, and more friendly 
with the Empire. To remain in Spain, therefore, was to 
remain in presence of a constant danger. Meanwhile 
across the water lay the province of Africa, fertile, rich, 
and as yet unpillaged. The strait was but twelve miles 
across. And there were allies whose assistance would be 
of value, and who would welcome him with joy as a 
deliverer, — the Moors, utter savages, who had been 
irritated but never subdued by the civilised arms of 
Eome; and the heretics called Donatists, the "'Puritans" 
of the early Church, whose bishops almost equalled in 
numbers the Catholic bishops; but who, since the con- 
ference of Carthage (a.d. 412), had suffered a rigorous per- 
secution. Moors and Donatists alike, therefore, would 
welcome Genseric as a deliverer; and that the latter were 
right in so doing is proved by the fact, that for 100 years, 
the duration of the Vandal empire, they enjoyed perfect 
peace. At this juncture it was, while the Vandal was 
still hesitating, that a strange chance gave him the oppor- 
tunity he required. Boniface, Count of Africa, had been 
made the victim of a plot (as we have seen), and recalled 
from his province by Placidia. Believing that his life was 
in danger, he looked round him for allies; and as Vorti- 
gern (if we may believe tradition) summoned the Jutes 
to aid him against the Picts (about a.d. 445), as Parses sum- 



1 26 History of the Roman Empire 

moned the Lombards into Italy (a.d. 567), as legend says 
Count Julian summoned the Arabs into Spain to avenge his 
daughter's wrongs (a.d. 710), so now Boniface summoned 
the Vandals to come and help him. And the barbarians 
who came to help remained to occupy. In a.d. 429 the 
Yandal nation crossed the straits, numbering, it is said, 
©nly 50,000 effective warriors, — a number, however, soon 
swelled by the allies already mentioned. Their crossing 
was the signal for a general flight. Before Moorish horse- 
men and pitiless Vandals, still more before the dreaded 
vengeance of religious foes, who had suffered and now 
burned to avenge, all of the Catholic population who 
could escape fled pell-mell to the oases of the desert or the 
caves of the Atlas. All too late Boniface discovered the 
treachery of Aetius, and too late tried to negotiate with 
the ally whose aid he had implored. In vain he rallied 
round him the garrison of Carthage and of a few other 
towns. Genseric turned a deaf ear to all representations, 
defeated Boniface in the field, and overran the whole open 
country j and Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo were the only 
cities that stood up out of the waves of invasion that 
surged around. Africa now suffered what Greece and 
Italy had suffered from. Alaric, and Gaul from Ataulf, and 
Spain from Wallia and Gondericj and without crediting 
all the stories suggested by passion or fanaticism, we may 
imagine it was a time of terrible misery. Even Eome 
felt the blow in the loss of her annual store of corn. 
Boniface meanwhile was besieged in Hippo, a maritime 
colony some 200 miles westward of Carthage, of which 
Augustine was at this time the bishop. This greatest 
bishop of the African Church died in the third month of 
the siege (August 28, 430); and of him, if of any man, 
we may truly say that he was taken away from the evil 
to come. The long peace which his province had enjoyed, 



Genseric and the Vandals 127 

ever since the battle of Thapsus (b.c. 46), was now ended; 
and with the Yandal conquest began a series of troubles 
— of Arian persecution^ of conquest and recon quest — until 
the strong arm of Mohammedanism wrested it from Christ- 
endom (about A.D. 650-700) and from civilised Europe. 
The siege of Hippo was protracted for fourteen months, 
until the Yandals were obliged to relinquish their efforts; 
and at Placidia's urgent request, reinforcements were sent 
to Boniface from Constantinople, under the command of 
Aspar. A second battle was hazarded, followed by a 
second defeat, which determined both Aspar and Boniface 
to abandon Africa at once (a.d. 431). Boniface returned 
to Italy; but it was only to end an unfortunate life by a 
dishonourable death. The enmity between himself and 
Aetius burst into an open flame, and their private quarrel 
was decided in a bloody battle, in which Boniface received 
a mortal wound from his enemy's hand, and died in a few 
days; while Aetius was obliged by Placidia to withdraw 
into Pannonia. Thus did a fatal jealousy rob the Empire 
of the invaluable services of two able generals at the very 
moment when most she needed them. However, it was 
not until a.d. 439 that the conquest of Africa was com- 
pleted by the surprise of Carthage, so turbulent were the 
subjects, so numerous and dangerous the domestic 
enemies of Genseric. On October 9 Carthage was taken, 
a fitting retribution, it was said, for almost unexampled 
corruption; and when the rumour reached Italy of what 
had happened within but a short distance of her own 
coast, when a bishop of Carthage (with the strangely 
Puritan name of " Quod vult Deus") and many of his 
clergy, embarked on crazy vessels and, tempest-tossed, 
were eventually stranded on the coast of Italy, it might 
well have seemed to Eonie that her hour too was coming.' 
The Vandal Kingdom— a.d. 430-533.— Under the 



128 History of the Roman Empire 

rule of Genseric Africa threatened to relapse into some- 
tliing like barbarism. Civilisation and Catholicism alike 
were in danger. The Mediterranean once more swarmed 
with pirates; no island, no harbour, was safe from their 
attacks; and at last even an army from Carthage was 
seen encamped in the Forum and occupying Eome for 
fourteen days ! But before this occupation the prosperity 
of Eome was utterly destroyed by the severance of Africa 
from the Empire. 

Rome Sacked by Genseric — a.d. 455. — Master of 
Africa and the Mediterranean, it is little wonder that 
Genseric's thoughts should have turned to Eome and the 
treasures of Eome. Cut off from their usual corn supply, 
and wounded by the loss of their far fairest province, it is 
little wonder, on the other hand, that the Italians should 
have longed to recover it. And the two enemies, face to 
face, each with injuries to avenge, would doubtless have 
met sooner had not the special difficulties of each at home 
occupied their attention for some five years. Eome was 
doing battle with the Huns, Genseric was pacifying a 
turbulent population. At last (a.d. 455), when Valen- 
tinian had been murdered, and Maximus, from passion or 
revenge, had forced the widowed Eudoxia to marry him, 
she, remembering her royal birth and indignant at the 
outrage, yet unable to hope for any aid from Constan- 
tinople (for her father was dead, her mother in a disgrace- 
ful exile, and the Empire in the hands of a stranger), 
appealed secretly to Genseric, as the Princess Honoria 
had appealed to Attila,^ and within three months the 
Vandal was at the mouth of the Tiber. Maximus 
was at once murdered by the mob in the streets, and 
three days afterwards Genseric was at the gates of 
Eome, Once more it was a priest who alone did not fear. 
^ See next chapter. 



Gens eric and the Vandals 129 

Once more the same Leo, bishop of Eome, who had 
arrested Attila's progress on the frontiers of Italy (a.d. 
452), sallied forth at the head of his clergy to intercede 
for the city (June 14, 455). But it was little that he 
won from the hard heart of Genseric. The lives of those 
who offered no resistance were to he spared; the buildings 
were to be saved from fire, and the captives from torture. 
And this was all. Eome and its inhabitants were delivered 
over for fourteen days to the tender mercies of Vandals 
and Moors, and everything of value which had been left 
by Alaric, everything which Christian devotion or patri- 
cian luxury had accumulated since Alaric's departure, was 
swept off and carried to Carthage. And thus it was, by 
a strange catastrophe, that a fierce barbarian, whose fore- 
fathers lived on the shores of the Baltic, compelled Eome 
to surrender, and carried to Africa the spoils of two re- 
ligions not his own. From the Temple of Peace he bore 
away the gold table and the seven-branched candlestick 
which Titus had brought as trophies from the sack of 
Jerusalem (a.d. 70) j while he stripped the Capitoline 
Temple of its yet remaining statues of gods and heroes, 
as well as of its costly gilt bronze roof, on which Domitian 
alone is said to have spent more than .£2,000,000. Last, 
but not least, the Vandal fleet conveyed to Carthage the 
occasion of all this misery, the Empress Eudoxia, and her 
daughters Eudocia and Placidia, accompanied by hundreds 
of captives of both sexes. But the fate of Eudoxia, who, 
if a prisoner, was treated honourably, and whose elder 
daughter was married to Genseric's son, Huneric, was 
happy compared to that of the innocent Eomans whom 
she had brought to ruin. They were divided as booty or 
sold as slaves — husbands torn from wives, and children 
from parents — a hard fate, only mitigated by the charity 
and self-devotion of Deogratias, bishop of Carthage. Yet 

ROM. EMP. I 



1 30 Histoiy of the Roman Emph^e 

if the sack of Eome inflicted loss upon tlie Christians, to 
the pagans and to paganism it was destruction. Genseric 
completed what Alaric had begun, and hy a strange 
fatality, even the ship which bore the statues of gods 
and heroes, the last relics of pagan Eome, to Carthage, 
foundered at sea. 

Policy of Genseric. — The object of Genseric in 
taking Eudoxia and the other captives to Africa was booty. 
Princesses at least must have considerable property, he 
thought, and be worth a ransom — probably also must have 
dowries. Hence the marriage of Eudocia to Huneric. 
And further, now that Eudocia and her mother were con- 
nected with him by marriage, any refusal to ransom the 
one or dower the other, would be a direct insult to him- 
self, and serve as an excuse for appealing to arms. On 
the other hand, the Eastern Emperor, Maxcian, was equally 
anxious to obtain their release, and alternately tried thi-eats 
and cajoleries upon Genseric. But the latter was imper- 
turbable. Whether it was to be war or peace between 
them, he cared not; but he did care for the dowry of his 
daughter-in-law and the ransom of her mother and sister. 
Eor seven years these negotiations lasted. In the end, by 
the intervention of a Roman senator, Olybrius, the lover and 
afterwards the husband of Placidia, the Court of Constanti- 
nople was induced to pay the sums demanded, and the 
mother and daughter were set free. Olybrius and Placidia 
were married. And now Genseric put in a second claim, 
which was almost comical. He demanded that Olybrius 
should be made Emperor of the West, adding that he could 
think of no other reason why his demand should be 
refused, except a desire to insult himself, and in that case 
he should know how to act. At this juncture Majorian 
might have been formidable as an antagonist, but Majorian 
was dead, and the feeble Severus was already tottering. 



Genseric and the Vandals 



i^i 



On Eicimer's refusal to accede to Genseric's proposal, 
the Mediterranean was at once covered with, piratical 
fleets, which penetrated to every corner, and by Genseric's 
orders everywhere raised the same war-cry, " Olyhrins, for 
Emperor of the West ! " 

Expedition against Carthage — a.d. 468. — In this 
extremity Eicimer appealed to the Eastern Emperor Leo 
to nominate an Emperor in the West, and to join in an 
expedition to curb the insolence of the Vandals. Leo 
nominated Anthemius, and showed his further good-will 
by immediate preparations for an invasion of Africa. No 
less than 1,113 ships were equipped in the Golden Horn, 
manned by 7,000 marines, and able to carry 100,000 men; 
large sums of money were provided to meet current ex- 
penses, and the only question was as to the general. 
Had the right man been appointed, the Vandal power 
might have been crushed sixty years before it really was, 
and the combined action of East and West, at once 
harmonious and successful, might have deferred if not 
prevented the destruction of Italian independence. 

Basiliscns its Leader. — The right man would have 
been MarceUinus, a general trained under Aetius, nomin- 
ally governor of Dalmatia, in reality almost an indepen- 
dent sovereign. But once more jealousy and political 
intrigue ruined a good cause. Eicimer in the West threw 
every obstacle in the way of his appointment as com- 
mander-in-chief, and would now neither countenance the 
expedition himself nor allow Anthemius to do so. In 
the East — equally anxious with the West to see Mar- 
ceUinus in chief command — two men intrigued to pre- 
vent it; one who did not wish the expedition to succeed, 
another who was convinced that its success depended on 
himself. And the former used the latter as his tool. The 
former was Aspar the Goth, the latter was Basiliscus, 



132 History of the Roman Empire 

brother of tlie Empress Verina. Aspar was afraid that a 
successful war would diminisli his own influence at Court, 
while he foresaw that the incompetence of Basiliscus would 
ensure failure. Accordingly, he used all his great in- 
fluence, and with success, to secure the appointment of 
Basihscus; while, feigning to see in it a mere religious 
quarrel and not a national war, he entreated the good 
offices of Basiliscus for his Arian friends and kinsmen the 
Vandals, whom he was about to attack and conquer. 
The expedition was well provided, well officered, and well 
concerted. JSTothing but the mingled folly and treachery 
of Basiliscus prevented its succeeding. 

Defeat of the Expedition, — The "Western fleet or 
right wing of the expedition was to set out from Italy 
under the command of Marcellinus, and to clear Sardinia 
of Vandals : the left wing, under Heraclius, was to pick 
up the garrisons of Egypt and Cyrenaica, and to fall upon 
Tripolis, and thence to march upon Carthage by land; 
while the centre, under Basilicus in person, was to join 
the right T\T.ng off the coast of Sicily, and attack Carthage 
from the sea. The force at command was overpowering. 
The right and left wings succeeded with ease in effecting 
the first steps in the campaign. The right wing and the 
centre united off the coast of Sicily : and Heraclius was 
on the march for Carthage. Even Genseric, we are told, 
was discouraged, and a bold attack might have carried 
the capital, and ended the war at once ! Kot once or 
twice only in history, however, discretion has falsely 
seemed the better part of valour. Carthage lay at the 
south-west corner of an immense gulf, facing nearly due 
north, the north-western and north-eastern extremities 
of which were named respectively the promontories of 
Apollo and of Mercury (Cape Earina and Cape Bon). 
Just to the west of the latter, and immediately within 



Genseric and the Vandals 133 

the gulf, was a small town with, an open roadstead, 
exposed especially to gales from the north-west and west. 
From hence to Carthage was ahout thirty-five miles 
direct. In this roadstead Basiliscus cast anchor, afraid 
to attack without feehng his way, and anxious to hear 
tidings of Heraclius. Presently an envoy from Genseric 
presented himself. He represented his master as eager 
for peace, hut afraid of his people. He asked, therefore, 
for live days' truce, that Genseric might consult theii 
wishes, handing Basiliscus, at the same time, a large sum 
of money as an earnest of his master's good-will. Basi- 
liscus rememhered Aspar, and was completely deceived. 
He took the money and granted the truce, and relapsed 
with his army into fatal security. To Genseric, mean- 
while, time was everything, and during those five days 
every nerve was strained to prepare for the change of 
wind to west which might he expected. On the 5th day 
the wind changed, and Genseric was ready. At night- 
fall two fleets issued from the harhour hefore the wind, 
one of men-of-war amply equipped and manned, the 
other of hoats and smaller merchant vessels filled with 
comhustihles. As they drew near the doomed fleet of 
their enemy no watchfires, no sentinels, were to he seen. 
Elect and army alike were wrapped in profound slumher. 
At a signal the fireships were cast loose, and driving 
hefore the wind presently hecame entangled with the 
nearest Eoman ships : and the horrified Eomans awoke 
to find that all was lost. The flames spread unchecked, 
until the whole hay was illumined : there was no possi- 
hility of concerted action, and individual efl"ort was use- 
less : while the confusion was increased hy the Vandal 
men-of-war sailing along the hurning line, and shower- 
ing darts and arrows on any who were hold enough to 
try and meet the peril. Even Romans of Rome's palmy 



134 History of the Roman Empire 

days might have been awestruck by such sights and 

sounds: and the Eomans of the later Empire were no 

heroes. Basiliscus fled under cover of the night: many 

followed his example; some few cut their way in despair 

through the enemy's line. When the relics of the fleet 

and army were reviewed in Sicily, it was found that 

more than half had been sacrificed by their own supine- 

ness, and the treachery of Basiliscus. Even yet, however, 

much might have been done with an army of 50,00t 

men, and a fleet of more than 500 vessels, had a man like 

Marcellinus been placed in command. But it was not to 

be. Marcellinus was murdered in open day — men said, 

at the order and by an agent of the jealous Eicimer. 

The forces of the Western Empire were recalled. At the 

news from Carthage Heraclius in Tripolis halted, and 

re'traced his steps. And lastly Basiliscus slunk back to 

Constantinople, a disgraced fugitive, and sought asylum 

from popular vengeance in the Church of St. Sophia. The 

intervention of the Empress Yerina alone enabled him to 

retire in safety to an obscure town in Thrace. 

Decline of the Vandal Power. — After this vic- 
tory, so unexpected and so crushing, Genseric became 
undisputed master of Africa, Tripolis, Sardinia, even 
Sicily, until his death in a.d. 477, and hardly a coast of the 
Mediterranean was safe from the Vandal fleets. Owing 
to his energy and ability for command, the Vandals, in 
the middle of the fifth century, became the foremost bar- 
barian nation within the Eoman Empire, and might have 
seemed destined far more than Franks or Visigoths to 
found a permanent kingdom. But Genseric may be com- 
pared to Epaminondas the Theban, whose death put an 
end to the glory of his nation, which his life had won. 
And after his death the declension of the Vandal power 
and name was so rapid, that only fifty years afterwards 



Gens eric and the Vandals 135 

Belisarius destroyed tlie kingdom without difficulty in a 
campaign of less than three months. The story of this 
campaign, and the account of the causes of Vandal weak- 
ness, will he reserved for the chapter on Justinian's 
reign. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
ATTILA AND THE HUNS. 

King Attila. — Of all the characters that played a 
part on the stage of Eoman history in the fifth century, 
not one is so weird, or so hard to grasp as that of Attila. 
As in a dense mist, some half-seen approaching figure 
looms larger than human, yet dim and undefined, so is 
Attila a shadowy figure, half-revealed by contemporary 
history, half-obscured and distorted by dim traditions, 
which in after ages gathered round his name. That he 
was really terrlhle is seen in history. That he was also 
really great — great out of all proportion to the results of 
his brief career — is evident from the fact, that numerous 
peoples, Eomans, Gauls, Franks, English, Scandinavians, 
Goths, and Hungarians, seized upon his name — as after- 
wards on that of Charles the Frank — and preserved it in 
their songs and legends. It is a strange medley of his- 
torical and traditional evidence, from which we have to 
infer the man as he was — history dating from one hun- 
dred years later; traditions as shifting and diverse as 
they are interesting. One "precious fragment," however, 
remains to tell us, at least, what one man saw with his 
own eyes, and thought of what he saw. In a.d. 449, a 
certain Greek, named Priscus, was attached to an em- 
bassy from Constantinople to the Court of Attila. He 



Attila and the Hims 137 

traversed a large part of the Trans-DannTDian provinces, 
and saw much both of Attila and his chief wife, and of 
the manners and customs of the Huns. His description 
of what he saw has been preserved almost entire, and is 
singularly vivid. Attila himself he represents as a 
silent, reserved, resolute, and ambitious man; able to 
conceive and energetic to carry out vast schemes of con- 
quest; and skilled in the secret of gaining the loyal 
obedience of even enemies — indisputably, a master of 
men. 

The Traditions about Attila. — On this command- 
ing figure, which dominated the minds, and awed the 
imagination of a whole Continent, converge a multitude 
of side-lights from all sorts of local traditions, and national 
folk-lore. I^ot only are these of interest in themselves, 
but of great use in illustrating the story of Attila; 
although, of course, their value varies in proportion to 
their remoteness in time and place from the time and 
place of their subject. An Italian legend on the one 
hand, and a German on the other, may be of equal value 
from different points of view; but a Scandinavian or 
an English tradition will be worth less than a German, 
and a Hungarian worth less than a Scandinavian. Lastly, 
each set of traditions has its distinctive type and char- 
acter, due to assignable causes. 

Gallo- Roman and Italian Traditions. — The 
Latin traditions about Attila owed their special character, 
partly to the fact that the communities which suffered 
from his arms were Christian, partly to the accident that 
the most dramatic situations in the tragedy were sus- 
tained by Christian priests or saints. As Anianus at 
Orleans, and Lupus at Troyes, and Genevieve at Paris, so 
Leo at Mantua was the prime agent in a great deliverance. 
In the fifth century the gratitude of a Christian province 



V 



138 History of the Roman Empire 

for such deliverance took the shape — not of thanks and 
honours to mihtary genius, which had laid the spectre of 
Hunnish invincibility — but of overflowing, almost abject 
reverence for the saintly men and women, who by death 
or unworldly calmness in the presence of danger had 
moved an Attila to mercy. Every district, every city, 
began little by little to claim some special part for itself 
in the awful horrors, from which, as by the finger of God, 
Gaul and Italy had lately been saved ; and some special 
glory for its own saint or prelate. Thus a mass of tradi- 
tions was insensibly accumulated, which (however unhis- 
torical) exactly chimed in with the notions and wishes of 
the time : and the idea was developed and fostered by 
the teaching of the Church, that Attila had been an 
agent of God's wrath against men, a " scourge of God," 
while holy men and women were agents of His pity, to 
intercede and save them from extermination. All things 
were double, one against the other j on one side war and 
rapine, on the other peace ; on one side the scourge, on 
the other the intercessor. What honoiu' then could be 
too great for a Church, whose ministers were so favoured 
of heaven — for a Genevieve, who (legend said) had saved 
Paris from capture; for an Anianus, who had rescued 
Orleans j for a Lupus, who led a host of Huns harmless 
through the streets of Troyes — harmless, because a veil 
was before their eyes^ and they seemed to be marching 
through woods and meadows ; for a Leo, whose interces- 
sion saved Eome from pillage by the heathen! There 
was but little room left for the recognition of such a 
trifling accident as the winning of a great battle. To the 
fifth and sixth centuries the conference of Mantua between 
Attila and Leo seemed as much more glorious than the 
victory of Chalons, as the prayers of Leo seemed greater 
than the genius of Aetius. The glory of Attila's repulse 



Attila and the Huns 139 

was thus transferred by religious sentiment from the 
warrior to the priest, and the story was coloured accord- 
ingly. When a hermit salutes Attila by the title of 
'' Scourge of God," and predicts his defeat at Chalons ; or 
when the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, stand 
behind Leo in his embassy to Attila, and with silent 
gestures, and drawn swords, threaten the great king, if he 
spares not Eome, it is no longer sober history we are deal- 
ing with, but history transfigured by religious sentiment. 

Bast German or Gothic Traditions. — The Ger- 
man traditions were very dilferent from the Latin. Their 
theme is not the "scourge of God," nor their burden a 
tale of carnage and misery. But they tell of a great king, 
wise and magnificent ; a hard fighter and a deep drinker ; 
whose court was hospitable, splendid, and joyous. 

There are two causes which seem to have left this deep 
impression on the legends of the Germans. Almost 
without exception they had been Attila's vassals. But 
the vassalage had been such as to soothe rather than 
wound their pride. It had brought with it conquest and 
glory. It had been shared with all the other nations of 
Central Europe. And the Ostrogothic chiefs, in par- 
ticular, had been admitted to Attila's counsels, and 
intrusted with the command of his armies. Further, 
the series of wars and Gothic conquests, which followed 
Attila's death, was identified with his name and memory. 
Odoacer, who ruled Italy for fifteen years, was son of 
that Edecon who had more than once been Hunnish 
ambassador to Constantinople ; and Odoacer himself had 
served in Attila's armies. Theodoric, who founded the 
kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and governed Italy for 
thirty years, was a son of Theodemir, Attila's chief 
counsellor. Thus, though dead, the memory of the great 
" King Etzel " seemed yet to survive in the exploits of 



140 History of the Roman Empire 

Ms captains and their children. Tradition, however, 
is careless of truth. Ere long Ostrogothic vainglory 
coupled together the names of Ermanaric, Attila, and 
Theodoric, as a glorious trio of contemporaries, to do 
honour to the royal race of the Amali ; forgetting that 
Attila was horn twenty-five years after Ermanaric's death, 
and that he died when Theodoric was only eight years 
old. It is instructive to note this confusion, and its pro- 
bable origin. Every good Goth or Erank knew by heart 
the songs that celebrated the deeds of his fathers and his 
people, the Tliad of his race. They were sung at every 
feast by bard and poet. But of all their heroes Theo- 
doric was the greatest, the worthy peer of heroes as great 
as himself, even though they were not Ostrogoth, but 
Visigoth and Hun. The combination was as easy, as it 
seemed natural and legitimate. 

"West German and Scandinavian Traditions. — 
Nor is it wonderful that the glorious deeds of the fifth 
and sixth centuries, their most glorious epoch, stimul- 
ated the ideas of Gothic singers; and that the sixth 
century saw rise a cycle of legend, which gradually passed 
from Eastern to Western Germany, and thence to Scan- 
dinavia, Iceland, and England, in which Attila figures 
largely, while Theodoric is the hero. And there is 
nothing singular in this passing on (as it were) of tradi- 
tion from one people to another. The songs of the Lom- 
bards in honour of Alboin were current not only in 
Lombardy, but among Bavarians and Saxons. Not 
seldom one king would send to another king his own 
favourite harper or singer (as Theodoric to Chlodwig the 
Erank), who would of course carry with him his own 
special songs. The English Alfred, the Erank Charles, 
the Scandinavian Scalds were all devoted to these glorifi- 
cations of ancient heroes, all dwelt with equal delight on 



Attila and the Htms 141 

the exploits of Theodoric and Attila. Thus, in J^orthern 
and Western Europe the popular songs of the ninth cen- 
tury repeated the same story, though in a different shape. 
In the latter, as in the earlier form, the mysterious king 
"Etzel" or "Athel" still figures — no longer, however, as 
the friend of Theodoric and Italian heroes, hut in con- 
nection with Walter the Yisigoth and Sigurd the IN'ether- 
lander, veritable German heroes. He even woos and 
wins the fair Gudrunn, when Sigurd, her lord, had been 
slain by the wicked wiles of Brunehild — wins her, how- 
ever, to his own sorrow, for she bids her first lord's 
murderers and all their followers to her new lord's court, 
and there one and all are slain, including Queen Gudrunn 
herself. 

Nibelungen-lied. — Thus far, then, the legend was a 
genuine tradition, passing from mouth to mouth. Towards 
the end of the tenth century, however, a certain Pilgerein 
or Pilegrin, bishop of Passau, and apostle of the Hun- 
garians, collected the various popular songs concerning 
Attila, which were floating about Germany, and threw 
them into the form of an epic poem written in Latin. 
This was practically the first edition of the famous 
" ISTibelungen-lied" (Song of the I^ibelungs) and deter- 
mined the character of all after legends respecting Attila. 
The song is the story of the curse, which clave to all who 
had aught to do with the hoarded treasure of King ]S[ibe- 
lung of the Mbelungen land— a curse which lighted upon 
Sigurd and Hagen, and Gunther and Gudrunn, and even 
involved King Etzel himself in trouble. In fact, the 
whole catastrophe of the tale turns upon Attila's second 
marriage. 

Hungarian Traditions. — Lastly, there is a whole 
cycle of Hungarian traditions gathered round three great 
heroes — Attila, the common ancestor and glory of all Huns j 



142 History of the Roman Empire 

ArpacI, founder of the Magyar kingdom (atout a.d. 930); 
Stephen, apostle, saint, and king (a.d. 1000): but it is the 
name of Attila again which predominates ; who invades 
Italy; who is forbidden, not by Leo, but by Jesus Christ 
himself, to disturb the repose of His apostles in Eome; 
who has two wives, Honoria the Eoman, and Chriemhild 
{i.e. Gudrunn), the German; and whose death is con- 
nected with his marriage to a third wife, daughter of the 
king of the Bactrians. 

Summary. — Such is a short sketch of a very wide 
subject. Its interest lies in the fact, that the name of 
Attila became the common stock of European legend for 
centuries after his death; and in the inference to be drawn 
therefrom, that none but a man of commanding greatness 
could have left this indelible mark upon his own and 
succeeding ages. And if it be asked why, if he were so 
great, the results of his efforts were so small, the answer 
would be twofold — first, that the tribes over whom he 
ruled, and especially the Huns themselves, were hardly 
in any sense civihsed; and, secondly, that the jealousy 
between the two great divisions of his Empire, the Aryan 
and Turanian, which was repressed with a strong hand 
while he lived, burst out after his death, and destroyed 
for a while the Empire which he had consolidated. 

State of Central Europe — a.d. 400-450. — It has 
already been told how, at the beginning of the fifth cen- 
tury, Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Africa, suffered from bar- 
barian inroads — from Visigoths, Yandals, Alani, and 
others. The Italian or the Gaul, who writhed beneath 
their violence, never suspected of course the cause which 
brought on him and his such woes from beyond the 
mountains. But in fact his enemies were fleeing from 
enemies more terrible than themselves. A great wave of 
Huns, with their subject-allies, was sweeping into and over 



Attila and the Htcns 143 

the east of Europe, driving all before them; and tlie valley 
of the Danulbe was like an ant's nest, disturbed and up- 
turned, where all is confusion and agitation and hurrying 
to and fro. The first glimpse we obtain of these Huns 
shows us hordes of savage horsemen preying on the in- 
dustry of others, trampling out the faint traces of civilisa- 
tion which were just beginning to show themselves, and 
reducing all "vyith whom they came in contact to a state 
of nomad barbarism like their own. Year by year they 
pressed further westwards, led by four kings or chiefs, 
one of whom was Moundzoukh, the father of Attila. 
Year by year they drew nearer to the frontier of Eome. 
And Eome soon learned both to fear and to use the swords 
of the fierce horsemen, who would sell themselves to any 
bidder. It needed but a strong hand to reduce these 
restless hardy men to order and obedience, and a strong 
head to guide them, and then Empire was assured. 

Attila, King — a.d. 435. — Both were united in Attila, 
who succeeded to the chief power about a.d. 435, and 
having rid himself of his brother Bleda, gradually laid a 
firmer and firmer grasp on all the Hunnish tribes of 
Eastern Europe, preparatory to reducing the Teuton and 
Slave populations in the l!Torth and West. And, if we 
may believe N'orse tradition, he pursued his conquests as 
far as the Baltic, and in a very few years was master of 
all Europe north of the Danube and east of the Ehine, 
with the exception of Scandinavia and the country between 
the Lower Ehine and the Elbe. "Barbaria" and "Eo- 
mania" were once more face to face; but the latter was no 
longer united, the former was no longer divided. And 
weakness on the one side was quickly followed by en- 
croachment on the other. 

Gradual Encroachments. — ^Already in a.d. 435 the 
Treaty of Margus, dictated by Attila, had shown what 



144 History of the Roman Empire 

the Eoman Empire tniglit expect at Ms hands. He de- 
manded an instant cessation of alliance between the 
Empire and the Trans-Danubian tribes; the immediate 
extradition of all Huns within the Empire; the restora- 
tion of Eoman prisoners who had escaped nnransomed; 
and a large increase of the "subsidy" or "aid," or what- 
ever other euphonious name they might choose to give 
to the " tribute^^ paid to himself. And in a.d. 441 and 
A.D. 446, on the pretext that the Bishop of Margus had 
surreptitiously rifled the tombs of the Hunnish kings, he 
had crossed the Danube, pushed as far as Thermopylae, 
defeated two Eoman armies, and ravaged seventy cities, 
allowing himself finally to be bought off. 

Embassy to Constantinople. — Again, in a.d. 449, 
an embassy was sent to Constantinople with demands 
more urgent than before. Attila claimed by right of con- 
quest all the Cisdanubian provinces within five days' 
march of the river. He required that future ambassadors 
sent to his court should be men of the highest rank 
only. He renewed his complaints about the refugees, 
with no indistinct threats of war. War indeed was what 
he wa;nted — ^war leading to conquest and aggrandisement. 
And the Eastern Emperor, Theodosius II. (a.d. 408-450) 
was no match for Attila in either firmness or policy. 
They were almost a ludicrous contrast. The one by his 
very personal characteristics, by his broad chest and deep 
sunk restless eyes, by his mingled simplicity and love of 
splendour, by the alternate ferocity and placability of his 
temper, by his subtle and persistent policy, by his wisdom, 
and justice, and generosity, challenged the awe and admira- 
tion of mankind. The other was at fifty as much a child 
as he had been at fifteen — regular in his studies and de- 
votions, lavish in his expenses, willing to abandon the 
cares of State to any one, sister, wife, or favourite, if he 



Attila and the Httns 145 

himself miglit only be let alone. It was the fable of the 
lamb and the wolf repeated. 

Counter-Embassy. — The reigning favourite at Con- 
stantinople was the eunuch Chrysaphius. This man 
flattered himself that he had successfully bribed Edecon, 
one of the Hunnish ambassadors, to assassinate Attila. 
In reahty, Edecon had betrayed the plot to his master. 
However, Chrysaphius, himself deceived, persuaded 
Theodosius to send a counter-embassy to Attila with an 
evasive if not imprudent answer, practically shelving 
his demands. What need of courtesy to a barbarian, 
who would shortly cease to trouble them? The three 
ambassadors, Maximin, Vigilas, and Priscus, already 
mentioned, set out with Edecon and Orestes, who were 
to return with them. They crossed the Danube, and 
after some days' journeying, unexpectedly met a deputa- 
tion similar to their own, despatched by Yalentinian III., 
the Western Emperor, to Attila. They, too, had a diffi- 
culty of their own to arrange, connected with certain 
vases or sacred vessels, which had been secretly withdrawn 
from Sirmium before its pillage, but which Attila had 
heard of and now claimed. The irony of Fortune could 
hardly farther go ! The answer of. Attila to the joint de- 
putation, given after some delay, was couched in similar 
terms. To the West it was, " The Vases, or their holder, 
or war." To the East it was, " The head of Chrysaphius, 
or war." Such an answer from such a man seemed to 
echo back and to force into relief all the vague presenti- 
ments and forebodings which were, so to say, in the air 
(a.d. 450), and were aggravated by a curious succession 
of natural phenomena, an eclipse, a comet, and shocks of 
earthquake. Tribe after tribe was known to be gathering 
on the banks of the Danube. East and West alike were 
sitting as in mute despair, expecting where the blow would 

ROM. EMP. K 



146 History of the Roman Empire 

fall, wnen on tlie same day at tlie same hour, (so runs the 
story), a courier demanded audience of Theodosius in the 
East and Yalentinian in the West, and each delivered 
his message in the same terms : — " Attila, my master and 
thine, bids thee prepare him a palace, for he comes." 

Attila demands the Princess Honoria. — But a 
more precise demand was yet to follow. Fifteen years 
before, Honoria, sister of Yalentinian, in a fit of romantic 
folly, or wearied with the monotony of life, had sent a 
ring to Attila and offered him herself. For fifteen years 
Attila had left the offer unnoticed, though he kept the 
ring. And now suddenly a formal request was made, 
that his bride might be sent, and with her, more im- 
portant still, her dowry. 

Alliance with Genseric and the Pranks. — At 
this juncture fortune gave Attila two allies, and an oppor- 
tunity which he was not slow to seize. These allies were 
Genseric the Yandal, and a Frankish prince. The former 
had deeply insulted Theodoric the Yisigoth by mutil- 
ating his daughter, his own son's wife, on some 
fancied slight, and then sending her home. The 
latter had been driven from his country by a domestic 
revolution on his father's death, and besieged Attila with 
entreaties to restore him to his father's throne. Qenseric, 
fearing that Theodoric would revenge himself for the 
insult (as in fact he did) by an immediate alliance with 
Rome, and preparations for war, concluded on his part 
an alliance with Attila, by which it was agreed that a 
simultaneous attack should be made on Italy and Gaul — 
an attack, however, which, as far as Italy was concerned, 
was deferred for some five years by Genseric's own diffi- 
culties in Africa. Attila meanwhile prepared with vigour 
to restore his Frank ally, and to attack his Yisigothic 
enemies, whom, at the same time, he tried to cajole with 



Attila and the Huns 147 

fair words. Now, as always, liis words were ambiguous. 
"Whether Eomans or Visigoths were his friends or enemies 
he left uncertain. One thing only was certain, that de- 
vastation and misery were in store for whomsoever he 
should attack. Only once before in history had such 
" numbers numberless " been gathered in one host, and 
the description of their names and arms rivals that of 
Xerxes' army as given by Herodotus. The lowest esti- 
mate reckons 500,000 fighting men. 

Attila invades Gaul — a.d. 451. — By the beginning 
of March Attila was on the Ehine. Eesistance seemed 
hopeless. Town after town was taken or surrendered — 
Spires, Worms, Strasburg, Metz, Eheims, Arras. All 
alike were pillaged. Officials, civil and military, fled. 
In the general panic one class of men alone remained at 
their posts, the priests, discharging ecclesiastical, civil, and 
even sometimes military functions, and earning for their 
order a well-deserved renown — for themselves too often a 
crown of martyrdom for their bold obedience to duty. 
Both history and tradition unite to honour also a woman, 
St. Genevieve, who saved Paris — not indeed, as legend 
says, by resisting an assault, but, when the men had 
resolved to abandon the city, by persuading their wives 
to refuse to acquiesce, and to shut themselves into the 
church of St. Stephen. The baf&ed husbands were forced 
to yield; and as Genevieve had ventured to predict, 
Attila passed Paris by. The Paris of those days was 
comparatively unimportant; and Attila had other pro- 
jects in view. To a leader, the strength of whose army 
was horsemen, the great plain of Central France promised 
to be at once a forage ground and a battle field; and 
towards that the king now directed his march from Metz. 
In twenty days he was before Orleans (beginning of 
May). 



148 History of the Roman Empm 

Siege of Orleans. — The situation of Orleans is re- 
markable. In ancient Gaul, as in mediaeval and modern 
France, it lias always played an important part, and a 
glance at a map will shew why. Lpng on the right 
bank of the Loire, where the river bends to the west- 
ward — commanding, therefore, the valleys west and south, 
and (as it were) barring the way from the north — -whether 
known as Genabum, or Aurelianum, or Orleans, from the 
days of Csesar to our own days, the city has been a famous 
centre, both commercial and strategic. As in the fifteenth 
century against the English, as in the nineteenth against 
the Germans, so in the fifth against Attila, Orleans 
made a vigorous resistance, and formed the turning point 
of the struggle. To one man belongs the glory of this 
resistance, Anianus, (St. Agnan), Bishop of Orleans, who 
was as good and self-devoted as he was full of vigour and 
resource. As the Huns were approaching, he hurried to 
Aetius at Aries, and urged him to march without delay. 
The city could hold out until June 23rd, and no longer. 
Then he returned with all haste to animate the citizens 
by his courage and his presence. Meanwhile, Aetius had 
no easy task before him. The relief of Orleans was a 
pressing necessity ; but Valentiuian had retained in Italy 
all but a handful of troops, the Burgundians had been 
defeated, the fidelity of the Alani was more than doubt- 
ful, and the Yisigoths sulkily refused to move a finger. 
It was Eoman folly, they said, which had brought them 
into this difficulty ; and the Eomans must meet it as best 
they could. In this crisis he had recourse to a man, 
whose influence with Theodoric was greater than any 
man's, the Senator Mecilius Avitus, afterwards Emperor 
(a.d. 455-6). Avitus was a strange mixture of the 
soldier, statesman, student, and man of pleasure, who had 
sustained each character with equal success, and captivated 



Attila and the Htms 149 

tlie tartaric imagination by the elegance of Ms life. And 
now tMs influence was turned to good account. "Where 
Aetius had failed, Avitus succeeded. Theodoric issued 
the order to march, and the junction of the Eoman and 
the Yisigothic forces seemed to assure victory before- 
hand. 

Relief of Orleans. — But they were only just in 
time. It was June 23rd, and no signs of relief were 
visible to the hard-pressed town. A messenger was sent 
in hot haste to Aetius, warning him that to-morrow 
would be too late. Still no help came ; and at last the 
city was forced to surrender at discretion to an enemy 
irritated by protracted resistance. The Huns entered 
Orleans, and the pillage began. But " when the night is 
darkest, dawn is nearest." A sudden cry of panic, and a 
sudden retreat of their enemies told the trembling city 
that help was at hand ; and the Roman and Gothic forces 
were attacking the Huns, even before they could extricate 
themselves from the narrow streets. Orleans was saved, 
and Attila in full retreat eastwards. But Aetius wasted 
no time in idle rejoicings. A hot pursuit was at once 
begun ; and ere night-fall the Eoman van-guard of Franks 
had overtaken the Gepidse, Attila's rear-guard, at the con- 
fluence of the Seine and the Aube, and at once attacked 
them. The battle raged all night, and at dawn 15,000 
men lay dead upon the field. But the struggle had been 
worth while. Attila had had time to concentrate his forces 
on the chosen spot, whece he resolved to fight out the 
contest for Gaul — a level country intersected by rivers, 
and bounded by mountains on the north and east. In 
this vast " Campania," as it was called, (Champagne) and 
at a spot (Durocatalaunum, Chalons) where two Eoman 
roads diverged to the north-east and south-east, offering 
means of retreat, if necessary, Attila took his final stand. 



150 History of the Rojnan Empire 

On tlie same day the army of Aetius encamped oppo- 
site to the Huns. The battle of Chalons has well been 
called one of the '* decisive battles" of the world; for the 
question at issue was nothing less than the question, what 
race in particular should enter upon the rich inheritance 
of Eoman civilisation, language, and law — whether it 
should be German or Hun, Aryan or Turanian. The vic- 
tory of Aetius did, in fact, secure to Europe all that is 
contained in the words "Christianity" and "civilisa- 
tion." By the victory of Attila the settlement of Europe 
would have been indefinitely postponed, and Eoman 
civilisation possibly lost for ever. 

Battle of Chalons — a.d. 451. — In the host of the 
Huns there was general discouragement, even Attila being 
moved by adverse prophecies and omens to forebode defeat. 
Accordingly, he delayed the action till as late in the day 
as possible ; nor was it till three in the afternoon that he 
led his army from their encampment of waggons. His 
Huns he posted in the centre under his own command, 
the Ostrogoths on the left wing, the Gepidee and other 
subject tribes on the right, his object being to break the 
Eoman centre, and at the same time to secure his own 
retreat to his camp, if needful. Aetius' tactics were skil- 
fully directed to meet the very thing which Attila had 
in view. The centre he left to take care of itself, posting 
there the smaller tribes, and those whose fidehty was 
doubtful, while he opposed the Visigoths to the Ostro- 
goths, and himself took the command of the left wing 
against the Gepidse. That his own centre would be over 
powered and pushed back was clear ; that his own right 
and left wing would defeat their opponents was probable; 
if so, his victory was assured. Visigoths and Eomans 
would wheel round and charge ; and no people so way- 
ward and unstable as the Huns would withstand a simul- 



A ttila and the Huns 151 

taneous attack on eacli flank. All happened precisely as 
lie had foreseen. The Alani and Burgundians were no 
match for the Huns, though they fought bravely : the 
Visigoths, (though their king Theodoric was slain), after 
a fierce struggle, defeated their kinsmen the Ostrogoths, 
and instantly fell on the flank of the Huns, while the 
Eoman left under Aetius did the same. Thus assailed, 
Attila was unable to hold his ground, and slowly retreated 
to the circle of waggons, whence a ceaseless shower of 
arrows was kept up, warning the pursuers not to presume 
too much upon their victory : and when next day a cease- 
less din of arms and blare of trumpets was heard from the 
Hunnish camp, it seemed as if some sudden blow were 
in preparation. Accordingly, a council of war was held ; 
and the Eomans and Goths agreed to sit down and 
blockade Attila in his camp, and starve him out. But 
Thorismond, the Yisigoth, was anxious to return south- 
wards, now that his father was dead, in order to secure 
his own position — as anxious, indeed, as Attila was to 
retreat before his forces were utterly demoralised by con- 
finement and inaction. The temper of barbarians is pro- 
verbially fickle. Aetius, therefore, judged it prudent to 
let the Visigoths have their way, and to withdraw his 
opposition, although their desertion was fatal to complete 
success. Eor no sooner was it discovered in Attila's 
camp that the Visigoths had set out on their homeward 
march, than Attila also broke out, and began his east- 
ward journey, while Aetius did not feel himself strong 
enough to do more than follow at a safe distance, and 
prevent plunder. Attila recrossed the Ehine, and Gaul 
was saved, if not from a passing devastation, at least from 
ruin; but the glory of his repulse, as we have seen, was 
not for Aetius. The Visigoths disputed with him the 
honour of the victory; while the Court of Eavenna 



152 History of the Roman Empire 

accused him of treason, in letting Attila escape — a charge 
repeated with dangerous emphasis, when the Huns 
threatened Italy in the very next year. 

Attila threatens Italy — a.d. 452. — This jeal- 
ousy felt towards Aetius made his task in protecting 
Italy, Ravenna, Eome, doubly difficult. He had no 
longer barbarian auxiliaries, scarcely even patriotic spirit 
to fall back upon; and when in despair he proposed at 
least to save the Emperor by conducting him to Gaul, a 
general chorus of indignation at once proclaimed it an im- 
possibility. All he could do, therefore, was to make the 
best use of the resources at hand. To protect Eavenna 
and Eome at the same time was impossible, so he aban- 
doned Eavenna to its fate. The Emperor took refuge in 
Eome. All troops, save a few garrisons, were withdrawn 
to the south of the Po, and a large camp was formed on 
the northern slope of the Apennines ; and there, as the year 
before, behind the Loire, he prepared to make a last 
desperate struggle for his sovereign and the capital, send- 
ing urgent demands meanwhile to the Eastern Emperor 
Marcian (a.d. 450-457) for reinforcements against the 
common enemy. But they were never needed. Attila 
had set out in the winter from Hungary, seized Sirmium, 
crossed the Julian Alps, and, after a three months' siege, 
had taken and so cruelly devastated Aquileia, that 100 
years later its site could hardly be identified. Erom 
thence, and from many another town, the inhabitants fled 
in panic to what seemed a safe retreat, the archipelago of 
islands on which Venice afterwards arose, but which at that 
time was haunted only by sea-birds. Yenetia was over- 
run; Milan and Pa via were sacked. But the delay before 
Aquileia had been fatal. It was now the heat of summer, 
and fever and pestilence appeared. Attila himself indeed 
was anxious to march on, to force Aetius to fight, and 



Attila and the Huns 153 

tlien to grasp tlie glorious prize of Eome; but his army- 
was already laden witK booty, and remembering with 
dismay the awful fate of Alaric, who had broken the spell 
of Eome's inviolability, and paid for his temerity with his 
life, they were eager to return. 

Embassy from Rome to Attila. — ^At tbis juncture 
a solemn embassy from Eome arrived in Mantua, headed 
by Pope Leo, and sought an interview with Attila. It 
was granted. And the king, flattered by the thought of 
thus seeing Eome and her pontiff sueing for peace and of 
humiliating his enemy Aetius, granted the peace that they 
asked f5r, and promised to quit Italy on condition of an 
annual tribute (July 6th, 452). One right he still reserved 
to himself, as though loth to part with a ground for com- 
'j)lauit — the right to Honoria and her dowry. 

Attila leaves Italy. — And so the mighty conqueror 
went his way, never again to trouble the peace of Italy 
— the conqueror, as his soldiers said, " invincible by men, 
but whom two wild beasts had overpowered," meaning 
Lupus at Troyes and Leo in Italy. And as he went, so 
runs the story, a warning was sent to him from heaven of 
impending doom ; for, as he was about to cross the river 
Lech (Lycus), a strange female figure, as though inspired, 
seized his horse's bridle and thrice cried aloud in awful 
tones, " Attila, back" (Eetro, Attila). And indeed the 
doom was very near. 

Marriage and Death of Attila — a.d. 453. — He 
took to himself in the following year a new bride, named 
Ildico or Hildegonde, probably a prize of war, whom tradi- 
tion variously describes as a Frank, a Burgundian, 
and a Bactrian. Be that as it may, on the morning 
following his marriage, Attila was found dead in his bed, 
wallowing in his own blood, and the young bride seated 
by the bed and bathed in tears. An ignoble end to a 



1 54 History of the Roman Empire 

life of conquest and glory, tlie more so as it was never 
known whether he had died of apoplexy or been murdered 
by his new wife, in vengeance for some insult to herself 
and her people. Surely Attila should have died on the 
field of battle, and in the rapture of victory J 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE "CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT" — COM- 
MONLY CALLED THE FALL OF THE WEST- 
ERN EMPIRE— A.D. 475-526. 

Results of Attila's Death — a.d. 453. — Attila was 
dead. And the strong will wliicli for twenty-five years 
had known no check was not obeyed a single day after 
his death. A quarrel for power broke out at once among 
his sons, necessitating a division of his Empire, of its soil 
and people and flocks. Among a nomad people, however, 
this is no easy task; there are no natural frontiers; the 
population is ever on the move. The passions of the 
Germans, too, were aroused by the idea of being counted 
and told off like so many cattle. The example of revolt, 
begun by the Gepidae, was speedily followed by the 
Ostrogoths and other German tribes; and the question 
was fought out in the plain of the Netad (a tributary of 
the Danube), whether Germany should be ruled by 
Germans or by Huns, should be Aryan or Turanian. It 
was settled by the defeat of the Huns. The Gepidse 
occupied what is now Hungary as the fruit of their victory. 
The Ostrogoths occupied Dalmatia, Noricum, and Pan- 
nonia, an encroachment connived at by the Eastern Emp- 
eror Marcian, in return for which they were supposed 
to be in alliance with the Empire, and to furnish con- 
tingents to its armies. Other German tribes, the Heru- 



156 History of the Roman Empire 

lians, the Eugians, the Sueves, seized the country lying 
between the Danube and the Alps; while the Lombards 
(Langobardi) moved southwards from the Elbe and took 
possession of what is now Bohemia. Thus once more was 
unhappy Italy threatened by a new series of barbarous 
foes. 

Attila was dead j but his influence and spirit lived after 
him. Italy was presently overrun by crowds of barbarians, 
singly or in bands, who flocked there to make their 
fortunes, as vultures flock to a dying carcass, For the 
Western Empire was nodding to its ruin. Aetius fell by 
the hand of Valentinian (a.d. 454), and with him fell the 
only clear head and strong arm, which could have warded 
off coming evils : for it is hardly exaggeration to say, that 
after his death there were no more Emperors of the West 
deserving of the name. Political power was wholly in 
the hands of barbarian adventurers, many or all of whom 
had known Attila, and in one way or another served 
under him. 

Orestes the Pannonian. — Eoremost among these 
was that Orestes, the Pannonian, who has already been 
noticed (chap, vii.) He had been secretary to Attila, and 
more than once ambassador to Constantinople; and when 
the great king was dead, he offered his services to the 
Emperor of the West, and speedily rose to be patrician 
and master-general. The Empire meanwhile was rapidly 
falling from bad to worse. Britain, Spain, and Africa, 
were lost. The Mediterranean was swarming with Vandal 
pirates. Dalmatia was independent, and Gaul practically 
the same, with the exception of Karbonne and Auvergne. 
Eicimer was dead; Constantinople was far off; and there 
seemed no man able or willing to hold the reins of power. 
At this crisis, moreover, the reigning Emperor was a Greek 
(Julius Nepos, A.D. 474), a nominee of the Eastern Emp- 



" The Change of Government " 157 

eror Leo (a.d. 457-474), and consequently unpopular 
as a semi-foreigner. A man of liigh. virtue and consider- 
able talent, Ms lot was cast in unhappy times; for the 
sole event with which his name is coupled was the com- 
pulsory cession of Auvergne to the Yisigoths. Orestes 
was the officer charged by l!Tepos with the unpleasant 
duty of handing over the province to its new masters, 
and a large body of troops was told off for the purpose 
iand placed under his command. But the cession cost 
I^epos his crown. General and troops alike fretted under 
the duty imposed upon them; and, instead of crossing the 
Alps, they marched as with one mind upon Eavenna, and 
^epos had no alternative but to flee. He hastily em- 
barked on board ship, and crossed the Adriatic to Dal- 
matia, where, six years later (a.d. 480), he was assassinated 
by order of Glycerins, his predecessor on the imperial 
throne, who had himself been ousted by I^epos. 

Romulus Augustulus — a.d. 475. — Orestes entered 
Eavenna as master of Italy on March 28, 475; but, con- 
trary to all expectation, he steadily refused the purple for 
himself, too cautious perhaps to run so great a risk use- 
lessly. For time was in his favour : the longer the delay 
the greater was the confusion. At last an interregnum 
of seven months was finished by what Thierry calls a 
" coup de theatre." On October 29th, a body of soldiers 
marched to the house of Orestes, seized his young son, 
aged fourteen, named Eomulus Augustulus, and saluted 
him as Emperor. Their choice was accepted by the army 
and the country, and thus by a strange accident the last 
in the long line of Eoman Emperors of the West bore 
the name at once of the founder of that Empire and of 
the founder of Eome itself. J^or was this all. The 
traditions of long years, the forebodings of seers and poets, 
tended to the conviction that Eome's destined twelve ages 



158 History of the Roman Empire 

of Empire, typified by the twelve vultures of Eomulus, 
were either completed or fast bordering on completion. 
The end at last seemed approaching. 

Downfall of Orestes and the Emperor — a.d. 
476. — The ruin of Orestes began from the moment when 
he appeared to have gained his object; for he had to 
satisfy the demands of those who had lifted him to 
power. And those demands were for nothing less than a 
third of the soil of Italy. Was the claim indeed so 
unreasonable % They had deserved well of Orestes. Other 
tribes and nations, like themselves, had been allotted 
land within the Eoman Empire. Visigoths and Bur- 
gundians in Gaul had laid hands on two-thirds of the 
soil ; were they not moderate in only claiming one-third % 
To themselves, no doubt, they seemed moderate enough ; 
but Orestes could realise what such a confiscation im- 
plied, and was not so hard-hearted or unscrupulous as 
calmly to inflict so much suffering on an unoffending 
people. He refused the demand. The refusal at once 
resulted in a meeting ; the meeting in a revolt ; and the 
revolters had no difficulty in finding a leader in Odoacer 
(or Otochar), the Eugian, son of Edecon, whom Attila 
had often employed, like Orestes, as ambassador to the 
court of Byzantium. The dreams of ambition had already 
been aroused in his mind by some words of St Severinus, 
whom he had visited in Noricum when on his way to 
Italy, foretelling his future greatness. Young and ener- 
getic, he had soon forced his way to high rank in the 
Italian army j and being encumbered with few scruples, 
he readily promised to give what Orestes had refused, if 
his comrades would accept him as their chief. They con- 
sented ; and war was at once declared against the ungrate- 
ful Orestes. Erom all the garrisons of Italy, and from 
the valley of the Danube, recruits flocked in to join the 



" The Change of Govermnejit " 1 59 

standard of Odoacer, wliom accident and force of char- 
acter thus enabled to verify the prediction of Severinus. 
Orestes threw himself into Pavia; while his brother 
Paulus prepared to defend Eavenna and the youthful 
Emperor. But it was too late. Pavia was blockaded by 
Odoacer for forty days, and at last fell, rather by treason 
from within than by force from without. The prayers of 
its saintly Bishop Epiphanius, glorious already for many 
a similar intercession, saved indeed the liberty and honour 
of many of its inhabitants, but Orestes was put to death 
(a.d. 476). Erom Pavia the victorious Pugian, already 
saluted as "king" by his soldiers, marched rapidly on 
Eavenna, defeated Paulus in the pine woods that covered 
the city in those days on the south and south-west, and 
entered the streets without resistance. Meanwhile, the 
trembling Eomulus had thrown off the imperial insignia, 
and tried in vain to hide himself from the ruthless bar- 
barian, who had slain his father, and would hardly hesi- 
tate to slay the son. Odoacer, however, was no mere 
butcher. Moved by the fears, or the youth, or the beauty 
of the lad, he scorned to take his life, and allowed him to 
retire with his whole family to the luxurious obscurity of 
the villa of LucuUus on the promontory of Misenum in 
Campania, — once the home of Marius, and then of Lucul 
lus, and now of the last Eoman Emperor of the West,— 
and yet to be, twenty years later, the final resting place 
on earth for 500 years of the body of the saint who had 
first warned Odoacer of his coming greatness. 

A Change in Form of Government. —Thus ended 
the long roll of Eoman Emperors in the West for 325 
years. An Emperor, indeed, there was at Constantinople, 
and continued to be for nearly 1000 years, but his power 
in the West and over Italy was partial and temporary, 
where he was regarded with jealousy as an ahen. Eome 



i6o History of the Roman Empire 

saw not another Emperor until the day when Pope Leo 
III. crowned Charles the Great Emperor in the basilica 
of St. Peter, and the Empire revived to attempt once more 
the great work of "Union," of Eoman and Teutonic amal- 
gamation (Christmas Day, a.d. 800). But we must not 
confound two different things. Empires can exist with- 
out Emperors, and there is no special virtue in a name. 
Although, there was no Emperor, the life of Eome and 
Italy continued much the same as it had been for the last 
fifty years ; indeed, it is remarkable how little noise among 
contemporaries this revolution produced, of which later 
historians have made so much. It was a change in the 
form of government, long foreseen ; and whatever change 
it produced among the governed was certainly a change 
for the better. It would be idle to compare the vigorous 
reigns of Odoacer and Theodoric with the anarchy pre- 
ceding them \ and it may well be doubted, on the other 
hand, whether the effect of the revolution on the ordinary 
life of an Italian was comparable to that produced by the 
Protectorate of Cromwell in England or by the Great 
Eevolution in France. 

Odoacer " King " — a.d. 476. — Odoacer was " king," 
and for fifteen years he ruled Italy strongly and well. 
He respected and enforced the Imperial laws ', he retained 
the Imperial of&cers, consuls, prsefects, and the like. 
Though an Arian, he granted toleration to the Catholics. 
He protected the Italian frontiers from the barbarians of 
Germany and Gaul. He even crossed the Adriatic to 
recover Dalmatia, and passed the Alps to reconquer !N"ori- 
cum. But years of decay are not to be repaired by so 
brief a period of peace; and the state of Italy was only 
less miserable than it had been. 

DifB-cnlties in and out of Italy. — Ever since the 
days of Tiberius, slavery and absenteeism had been work- 



" The Change of Government''' i6i 

ing tiieir deadly effect. Population had steadily declined, 
as tlie means of subsistence became scarcer, and had been 
further diminished by the incessant wars and disorders 
of 200 years; while the loss of Egypt and Africa had sud- 
denly cut off the ordinary supply of corn for the great 
cities. Pope Gelasius now repeated the complaint made 
eighty years before by St, Ambrose, that whole districts 
in the Eomagna and Tuscany were ruined and depopu- 
lated. And now, to crown all, one-third of the soil was 
wrested from the impoverished landowners, and be- 
stowed (as in the times of Sulla and Augustus) on rude 
soldiers, who did not, like the Visigoths in Gaul, bring 
wives and children and cattle with them, and so form a 
genuine "colony," but being unused to husbandry and 
settled life, soon tired of their bargain, and abandoned 
or sold what they did not care to keep. It seemed, 
therefore, that many a farmer had been ruined to no 
purpose; for the soldiers who dispossessed them were soon 
as poor as they — men to whom revolution could mean 
nothing but gain, and who were, therefore, ripe for re- 
volution. Por the moment, however, the danger was 
evaded by the astuteness of Odoacer. There were two 
quarters from which he might anticipate interference — 
from the Visigoths in Gaul, and from Constantinople. 
The former he pacified by ceding to them J^arbonne, the 
last relic of Eoman dominion beyond the Alps. The 
alKance of the Emperor Zeno (a.d. 474-491) he won by 
a deeper stroke of policy. Zeno was very anxious to 
interfere in the West, and there were two men at least 
who were equally anxious to aid him in so doing. One 
of these was Julius IN'epos, the ex-Emperor of the West, 
who had fled to Dalmatia, and was eager to regain his 
crown; the other was Theodcric the Ostrogoth. Theod- 
oric was the son of Theodemir, of the royal race of the 

ROM. Earn Jj 



1 62 History of the Roman Empire 

Amali (the Immaculate), and had been brought up as a 
hostage at the Court of Byzantium. Educated, indeed, 
tie was not j for he never even learned to write ; but con- 
tact with civilisation awoke and stimulated his native 
genius, and produced tliat happy combination of energy 
and wisdom, of power of will and respect for law, which 
marked soon afterwards his peaceful reign in Italy. As 
yet, however, all this was in the future, and Theodoric 
was only an ambitious man, with a consciousness of latent 
power which he longed to use — a dangerous enemy, how- 
ever, should opportunity offer. 

Odoacer Subordinate to the Emperor. — With 
this trio of unquiet spirits Odoacer had to cope — with 
Zeno, jealous of the independence of the West; with 
Nepos, ever importuning him to act; with Theodoric, 
eager for some field of action. And Odoacer was equal 
to the occasion. He too had an ex-Emperor in reserve in 
the person of Eomulus Augustulus. At Odoacer's dicta- 
tion, Romulus instructed the Eoman Senate to send an 
embassy to Constantinople, declaring that Italy was weary 
of two Emperors, and asking Zeno to resume the Imperial 
power, and to name Odoacer " patrician " and representa- 
tive of the Emperor in Italy. At the same time, as 
though an af&rma,tive answer were certain, the Imperial 
insignia, diadems, and purple, the heirlooms of four cen- 
turies, were dispatched to Constantinople to adorn per- 
haps some cabinet of curiosities in the Imperial palace. 
Zeno graciously accepted the present, and assented to the 
petition as far as regarded Odoacer, while reserving the 
rights of Il^Tepos — a reservation which the patrician wisely 
ignored, and which was rendered useless by the murder 
of IN'epos (a.d. 480). Eor a time Odoacer was master of 
Italy. And to Italy he presently added Sicily, which he 
bought from the Vandals. 



*' The Change of Government " 1 63 

Theodoric sent to reduce Italy to Obedience 
— A.D. 488. — But it was only for a time. After a peace- 
ful reign of some ten or twelve years Odoacer was van- 
quished, and Italy oppressed by a sudden irruption of 
Theodoric and the whole Ostrogothic nation. It would 
be alike useless and wearisome to narrate in detail the 
varying relations of Zeno and Theodoric, and the wretched 
intrigues and cabals of the Eastern Court. Suffice it to 
say that, after a dozen quarrels, and as many reconcilia- 
tions, the enmity and the friendship of the Ostrogoth 
became equally burdensome to the Emperor of the East, 
who welcomed greedily, at last, a proposal made twice 
before and twice rejected, that Theodoric should release 
the province of Italy from the " oppression " (as it was 
styled) of the too independent Odoacer. That Theodoric 
was ambitious has already been said; but ambition was 
not now his only incentive. He was regarded as a 
natural leader, not only by his own Ostrogoths, but by 
many another people inhabiting the valley of the Danube; 
and while the Ostrogoths were chafing at the misery and 
inaction of their life in Moesia, and bitterly exclaiming 
against their king's luxurious and ignoble life at court, 
Eugians, Heruhans, and others were calling on him to 
avenge them upon the Italianised Odoacer, who had ven- 
tured to attack and defeat them on their own side of the 
Alps. Ambition, shame, and anger, therefore, combined 
to urge Theodoric to immediate action, while Zeno's assent 
relieved the East of a troublesome and domiiLeering neigh- 
bour. The vast host, numbering (it was said) 200,000 
fighting men, besides women and children, cattle and 
waggons, set out on its westward migration in the autumn 
of A.D. 488; and once again (as so often before, and so 
often since in her unhappy history) Italy was to be the 
prize of battle. 



164 History of the Roman Empire 

March of Theodoric — a.d. 488-9. — The line of 
marcli chosen by Theodoric was not the ordinary one by 
the valley of the Save and the Julian Alps, but the 
shorter and more southern road leading through Illyricum 
to Dyrrachium. He hoped thus to escape the hardships 
of a winter march over difficult ground; and knowing 
that there were vessels in abundance on the coast, he 
expected to be able to seize them, to transport his people 
across the Adriatic, while Odoacer was awaiting him in 
the North, and thus to be master of Central and Southern 
Italy, and perhaps of Eome, before his enemy could 
attack him. To this clever plan nothing was wanting but 
good fortune. When the Goths, however, arrived on the 
Eastern coast, they found all the vessels on which they 
had counted withdrawn, and the people bitterly hostile. 
To retrace their steps, or to follow the coast line and so 
march to Italy, seemed almost equal madness; while to 
remain in Dalmatia was certain destruction. The second 
alternative was finally adopted. And so in the dead of 
winter (a.d. 488-9) amid snow and frost, over mountain 
ranges, across rivers and torrents, in the face of enemies, 
and hai^assed by hunger and illness, the great host held 
its way obstinately northwards, until they struck the 
valley of the Save near Emona. They crossed the Alps, 
and halted to recover health and strength in the plain 
between the rivers Sontius (Isonzo) and Erigidus (Wip- 
pach) before attacking Odoacer. 

Struggle between Odoacer and Theodoric — 
A.D. 488-493. — The struggle between Odoacer and Theod- 
oric lasted for more than four years, and was marked 
by three desperate battles, and a siege of nearly three 
years — a struggle in which the material resources seem 
to have been mostly in Odoacer's hands, and only for- 
feited bj his own recklessness, while it brought out into 



" The Change of Government*^ 165 

strong relief the daring and energy of Theodoric, and 
gave him without dispute the foremost position in Italy. 
The first blow was struck by Theodoric (August 28, 
i89). Odoacer had formed an intrenched camp on the 
Isonzo — as famous a battle field of Italy as Leipsic has 
be':;n of Germany — where Maximin had been defeated 
and slain in a.d. 238 ; and Theodosius had conquered 
Eugenius in a.d. 384; and Attila had destroyed Aquileia 
in A.D. 452. The intrenchments were carried, and 
Odoacer fied to Yerona. Theodoric lost no time in fol- 
lowing his enemy. On September 27 a pitched battle 
was fought on the east bank of the Athesis (Adige), in 
which, after desperate fighting, the Goths were again vic- 
torious; the Italian centre was driven in and routed, 
their right wing was pushed into the river, Yerona was 
taken, and Odoacer found refuge in Eavenna. Fifteen 
years afterwards the plain was still white with the bones 
of the dead, to whom the Ostrogoth had forbidden burial. 
Theodoric now styled himself " King of Italy," and then 
followed a paper war of proclamations, recriminations, 
and appeals, each ''king" striving to enhst on his own 
side the hopes and fears of the people. The sympathies 
of Italy were undoubtedly with Odoacer, rather than 
with his antagonist. Theodoric had come unasked to 
interrupt a period of unwonted peace; and as for Zeno, 
who was this pseudo-Csesar, that treated Italy and Eome 
like a piece of private property to be passed from hand 
to hand 1 In spite, therefore, of many just causes of 
complaint, the Italians clung to Odoacer; until in a fit 
of anger, because the Romans refused to admit him 
to the city, and wished to stand neutral in the strife, 
he ravaged the whole adjoining country, and alienated 
the loyalty of his former friends. But for this he might 
have weathered the storm; for what with the treachery 



1 66 History of the Roman Empire 

of allies, and the disparity of strengtli, Theodoric's posi- 
tion became so precarious, that he was reduced to ask 
for support from his kinsmen, the Visigoths in Gaul. 
Odoacer had even felt himself strong enough to besiege 
Theodoric in Pavia after sacking Milan. A third great 
battle, however, was fought between the rival kings on 
the Adda, near Milan (August 11, 490), in which the 
Ostrogoths were again victorious, and Odoacer again was 
forced to flee to Eavenna, with its sheltering marshes 
and pinewoods. Here for nearly three years he was 
blockaded by Theodoric — a blockade only interrupted by 
one spirited attempt (which failed) to carry off Theodoric 
bodily in the dead of night. Neither could exhaust the 
patience of the other; each was harassed by famine and 
disease. 

Convention of Ravenna — ^a.d. 493. — At last, on 
February 27, 493, a convention was concluded, through 
the mediation of the Bishop of Eavenna, by which it was 
agreed that the two kings should share the kingdom of 
Italy, either dividing the territory between them, or 
ruling in turn after the ancient form of Consular Govern- 
ment. Theodoric entered Eavenna on the 5 th of March, 
the two armies and the two kings occupying different 
quarters of the city. 

Murder of Odoacer. — It was, however, only a brief 
truce. Between two such men, in such a position, peace 
was in fact impossible. Jealousy begot suspicion. There 
were meetings of officers, rumours among soldiers and 
townspeople. Mischief was evidently brewing, which 
nothing but loyal sincerity between Theodoric and Odo- 
acer could prevent. And this was wanting. A few daj^s 
after his entry into Eavenna, Theodoric invited Odoacer, 
his son, and principal officers to a grand banquet, at 
Av^hich they were all murdered in cold blood, Odoacer by 



" The Change of Governmenf^ 167 

Theodoric's own hand. And tliese murders were fol- 
lowed by a general massacre of all Odoacer's friends where- 
ever they were found. Theodoric was undisputed " Earig 
of Italy." 

It is difficult to form a just judgment of so dreadful a 
beginning of a glorious reign. Murder is never defen- 
sible; but the guilt of murder varies indefinitely. Bar- 
barians think lightly of bloodshed: and Theodoric was 
more than half barbarian. In him lofty and almost 
heroic aspirations, and an intellectual admiration of the 
higher virtues of civilisation, were grafted upon the in- 
stincts of a savage. Attila was more merciful than Theod- 
oric in his fiercer moods; while his justice, toleration, 
and firmness as a ruler were worthy of Trajan. Tlie 
murder of Odoacer by Theodoric seems less odious in our 
eyes than the judicial murder of Servetus by Calvin, in 
the name of conscience (a.d, 1553), far less wicked than 
that of the Due d'Enghien by l^apoleon, on the plea of 
self-defence (a.d. 1804). A man must be judged by the 
standard of his own day; and neither to the Italians, 
who were familiarised with horrors by years of war and 
revolution, nor to the Germans, who had been used to 
human sacrifices, and still valued human life by a money 
standard, would Theodoric's act probably have seemed 
worse than a questionable deed wrought in self-defence. 
Undoubtedly it is more to his glory to have risen above 
the standard of his age in respect of toleration and poli- 
tical wisdom, than it is to his shame to have sunk down 
to that standard in his regard for human life. 

Prosperous Reign of Theodoric — a.d. 493-526.— 
Theodoric was " King of Italy " during thirty-three years, 
— the happiest thirty years which that country knew 
between the age of the Antonines (a.d. 138-180), and the 
time of Charles the Great (about 800). Wliile acknow- 



1 68 History of the Roman Empire 

lodging in words a nominal dependence on the Eastern 
Empire, he was in reality an independent sovereign, 
and regarded himself as rightful heir of the Empire of 
the West — "hseres Imperii, semper Augustus." As 
Emperor in fact, though not in name, he addressed 
words of counsel, encouragement, or remonstrance to the 
neighbouring kings; while he carefully cultivated their 
alliance — himself marrying the sister of Chlodwig, and 
giving one daughter in marriage to the King of the Visi- 
goths, and another to the King of the Burgundians. His 
sister married the King of the Yandals, and his niece the 
King of the Thuringians. His greatness is shown by 
these alliances, by the embassies which visited his court 
from far distant countries, by the memory that was long 
cherished of his name and deeds. He reduced to order 
the troubled districts of Pannonia and J^oricum ; he re- 
pulsed an attack upon Italy of the Emperor Anastasius 
(a.d. 509) j he maintained a close friendship with the 
Visigoths, and even saved them from destruction at the 
hands of Chlodwig (a.d. 507). From Sicily to the 
Danube, from Sirmium to the Loire, the influence of 
Theodoric was paramount, and Italy for a generation was 
exempt from the ravages of war. That portion of the 
soil, which had been confiscated by Odoacer, was given 
to the Ostrogoths — no mere army of occupation, but a 
"people" with arms in their hands, men with wives and 
children and cattle, who meant to live in their hard-won 
homes. In the government of Italy he made little or no 
change; the functions and names of the old officials were 
carefully preserved; and he used the services of the 
ablest Italians in all but military duties. Eome and the 
great cities enjoyed in his reign order and plenty, while 
their works of art and famous buildings were carefully 
protected. Eut in nothing perhaps was the general pros- 



" The Chmtge of Government " 169 

perity more strikingly sliown than in tlie sudden increase 
of wealth, and the great development of industry. Agri- 
culture revived; mines were opened and worked; the 
Pontine marshes were drained and cultivated. These 
were the signs of government of a high order — so high, 
indeed, that we are driven to ask, wliy the work of a man 
so just and impartial, so wise and tolerant, was after all 
so transitory, that it was in part undone hefore his death, 
and that in thirty years hardly a trace of it was to he found? 
The answer to this question is threefold. Although Theod- 
oric's avowed ohject was to fuse Teutonic vigour with 
Eoman civilisation, a complete fusion of such diverse 
elements must he a work of time, and needs mutual inter- 
course, intermarriage, and community of religious faith to 
produce it; whereas the Ostrogoths in Italy were a dis- 
tinct nation, an aristocracy of conquest, whose separation 
from the conquered was as jealously maintained as that of 
the JSTormans from the English by William the Con- 
queror. And they were Arians, Vv^hom good Catholics 
were hound to hate. If it required a century and a 
half to fuse English and I^ormans, Goths and Italians 
could scarcely he amalgamated in thirty years ! Eor, 
deplore it as we may, religious differences are more in- 
delible than any others; and, however they may be 
silenced for a while by a strong hand, are a constant 
source of danger. Men who feel sure they are right in 
their views are often strangely blind to the rights of 
others. Lastly, Theodoric's was a single life, and his 
work lacked continuity, which is indeed the special draw- 
back of the rule of one man. The more we praise the 
wisdom which triumphed over exceptional difficulties, the 
more in such a case is it certain that the difficulties will 
recur, when the great man is gone, and the wisdom to 
cope with them is withdrawn. 



I/O History of the Roman Empire 

Close of Theodoric's Reign— a.d. 523-6.— The 
last three years of a glorious reign were emhittered 
by religious dissensions and political persecution. Five 
years before the aged and tolerant Anastasius was suc- 
ceeded on the throne of Constantinople by the Dacian 
peasant Justin (a.d. 518), whose accession put an end to 
a schism of thirty-five years between East and West, 
and whose orthodoxy acknowledged the supremacy of 
the Eoman See. It was the signal for a persecution 
of the Arians in the East, and even in Gaul. Italy alone 
was exempt. But Theodoric could hardly see unmoved 
the rise of a spirit, which he had done his best to hold 
in check; he was at once indignant and alarmed, and 
addressed strong expostulations on the subject to Justin. 
At the same time vague rumours began to reach Eavenna 
of a conspiracy against himself, involving the whole 
Eoman Senate — rumours only too likely to be true, when 
their place of origin was Eome, and religious jealousy was 
running high. Theodoric's heir, too, was a child, whose 
only guardian would be a woman; while there was danger 
to be dreaded from the known ambition and orthodoxy of 
Justin's heir, Justinian. The future, therefore, looked 
doubtful enough to justify suspicion, which unhappily 
aroused the darker side of Theodoric's character. Sum- 
mary and cruel vengeance was taken upon the leading 
members of the Senate. Boethius, the greatest of living 
Italians, was imprisoned, tortured, and beaten to death. 
Symmachus was executed. Even Pope John died in 
prison. But it is best to draw a veil over the last sad 
days of a really great man, in whom a fine intellect was 
enfeebled and a generous temper soured by unforeseen 
anxieties, and by what seemed to be the ingratitude of 
men for thirty years of uninterrupted benefits. No man 
is made better by despotic power, be he ever so good or 



" The Change of Government " 171 

able; and while we lament the fierce deeds which have 
left a stain upon his memory, we may well say of Theod- 
orie, with the Gothic historian Procopius, that "though 
he was called a usurper and a tyrant, he was every inch a 
king." 



CHAPTER X, 
THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN— A.D. 527-565. 

Contrast of East to West. — We pass abruptly 
from West to East — from a scene of vivid if rude and 
barbarous energy, to a life better ordered, yet on the 
whole less noble. Intrigue takes the place of war. The 
story of a Chrysostom or a Theophilus, a Eudoxia or a 
Eutropius, is repeated till we are weary, while barbarous 
chiefs patronise or tyrannise over a feeble Emperor, too 
weak to resist and too indolent to resent it. Erom Arca- 
dius to Justin (a.d. 395-518) it is the same tale with 
slight variations, whose ignoble course it is as useless to 
follow as it is uninteresting to read. But in Justinian 
we come once more to a man whose thoughts and life 
affected all after ages. It is not with elected as it is 
with hereditary princes, who are for the most part cast 
in the same mould. Elected rulers are in the majority 
of cases "great men," embodiments in a sense of their 
own age, who represent in miniature, yet with deiiniteness, 
the vague and inarticulate tendencies of thousands of 
their fellows. Great men, as Carlyle says, are " profitable 
company." 

Justinian. — And was Justinian great % Certainly, if 
the man who can conceive vast ideas and carry them to a 
successful issue be great, Justinian deserves the name. 



The Emperor JiLstinian i^^ 

To Mm was due tlie glory of the codification of Eoman 
law, of the recovery of Italy and Africa to the Empire, of 
the repulse of attacks from Persians and Bulgarians. The 
character of Justinian was a strangely mixed one, it is 
true. It piques our curiosity. It is not necessary to 
believe half that the malicious "Anecdotes" of Procopius 
recount of the weakness of Justinian, or of the shameless 
vice of Theodora j and the deeds of his reign are before us 
to speak for themselves as to his energy, industry, and 
perspicacity. Yet he was at once rapacious and prodigal, 
ambitious and cowardly. Though a peasant born, and of 
barbarian blood, he had very little of barbarian independ- 
ence or peasant hardiness, being guided by his wife's more 
masculine spirit. He had far-reaching ideas, and chose 
the fittest instruments to carry them into effect; but was 
too timid or too jealous to allow them independence of 
action. In an age of great warriors and ceaseless war, he 
had no military instincts, though (like Philip the Second 
of Spain) he serenely appropriated the glory and the fruits 
of struggles in which he took no part. However keen 
was his intellect, and incredible his energy, yet his 
character leaves on the mind an impression of pettiness; 
for he was neither liberal nor generous to his best friends 
— a man to be neither much loved, nor much hated, nor 
much respected, yet undeniably " great" intellectually. 

Justinian's Rise. — The fortunes of Justinian arose 
out of the favour of his uncle Justin. The latter, born in 
Illyricum, and probably a Goth, had migrated to Byzan- 
tium about A.D. 474. He enlisted in the Imperial guard, 
rose rapidly from grade to grade, and on the death of 
Anastasius (a.d. 518) adroitly secured his own election 
as Emperor. Thus favoured by fortune, he lost no time 
in summoning to court his sister Beglenitza, her husband 
Istok, and their son Uprauda, — which barbarous names, 



1/4 History of the Roman Empire 

too harsli for polite ears, were presently exchanged for 
Vigilantia, Sabbatius, and Justinianus. The young man, 
stimulated by the new and polished life around him, 
threw himself with ardour into his uncle's plans, and 
astonished his masters by his intelligence, curiosity, and 
untiring activity of mind. Poetry and music, law and 
theology, architecture and strategy — he studied, if he did 
not master them all. To Justinian knowledge was a 
passion. But there was a stronger passion even than 
knowledge, which mastered him before his uncle's death 
(a.d. 527), and to which he remained subject all his life. 
He fell in love with the famous dancer Theodora, whose 
dubious character and enchanting beauty were alike the 
talk of the town. But in spite of her repute, in spite of his 
mother and uncle, and in the teeth of the law which for- 
bade such marriages, he married her, and remained her de- 
voted husband ever after. She repaid him, indeed, with no 
small benefits. If her life had been vicious, if she was 
still a proud and domineering woman, yet she possessed a 
keen intellect, a powerful judgment, and a rapidity of deci- 
sion, which more than once stood Justinian in good stead. 
Description of Justinian. — Justinian was above 
middle height, with regular features and a high colour. 
His manner was self-possessed and gracious; his life was 
temperate, or even ascetic. Indolent and irresolute in 
action, he was restlessly diligent in business. Being 
troubled with sleeplessness, he devoted great part of the 
night to the affairs of Church and State, or paced up and 
down the galleries of the palace, shaping the great ideas 
which it was his good fortune to see realised. It is hardly 
strange that the popular imagination saw in him a demon 
in human form, who needed neither sleep nor food. He 
was an indefatigable builder both of palaces and churches, 
notably of the famous church of St. Sophia. He strength- 



The Emperor Justinian 175 

ened and increased the fortifications of the Empire, 
especially on the Danube and the Persian frontier. He 
had hardly mounted the throne before he began his great 
work of legislation, which both in importance and in the 
effects it produced, far surpassed the brilliant victories of 
his generals. It was a work much needed, to analyse 
and codify the mass of law and legal opinions which had 
grown up in 1000 years. The attempt had been made 
more than once, but with only partial success. It was 
reserved for Justinian to complete it. The matter was 
intrusted to a large commission, presided over by the 
famous lawyer Tribonian, and was begun in the Emperor's 
first year, a.d. 528. The first section of the business, the 
Code, was in fact a revision of the imperfect code pub- 
lished in A.D. 430 by Theodosius II., the lapse of a century 
having rendered addition and retrenchment alike necessary, 
and it was accomplished in fourteen months. This was 
followed by the Digest or Pandects, containing the gist 
of the opinions and writings of the most eminent Eoman 
lawyers, the continuous labour of three years (a.d. 530-33). 
Most important of all were the Institutes, dealing with 
the elements or first principles of Eoman law. These 
three — the Code, the Digest, and the Institutes, together 
with the JSTovellse or successive supplements to the Code 
(a.d. 534-565) — formed the " Corpus Juris Civilis " (Civil 
Law). 

The Nika Riot — a.d. 532. — In spite, however, of the 
unremitting efibrts of the Emperor and of the glories of 
his reign, his home government was as weak as that 01 
any of his predecessors or successors. One crowning in- 
stance will serve as a specimen — a mere city riot, arising 
from a trivial cause, which nearly cost him his throne. 
The drivers of the chariots in the Hippodrome were 
divided into *' factions/' distinguished by their colours-— 



1/6 History of the Roman Empire 

the " white," " red," " green," and " blue." The " green " 
faction had been identified with the cause and the scarcely 
orthodox opinions of the late Emperor Anastasius; the 
" blue" was strictly orthodox, and devoted to Justinian. 
Hence between the two was bitter rivalry, extending, 
moreover, from the drivers to their relations and friends. 
The whole city was divided into hostile camps, until at 
last the "blues" ventured, under cover of favour at court, 
to proceed to open violence. They paraded the streets in 
bands at night. Ere long, joined by all the dissolute 
youth of a great capital, they plundered, beat, even 
murdered their enemies. The example spread. A dan- 
gerous spirit of lawless violence became the fashion. 
Terrorism was brought to bear on private enemies, on 
creditors, on judges, on masters. The unhappy "greens," 
meanwhile, persecuted by their enemies and unprotected 
by the laws, were forced to resist in self-defence, whilst 
any magistrate who was just enough to shelter them with 
his protection had soon reason to repent of his untimely 
zeal. The Empress had an ancient grudge against the 
" green" faction from her theatrical days, and she neither 
forgot nor forgave an insult. Erom the Court, therefore, 
they could expect no favour. At last (a.d. 532) an un- 
fortunate accident set the smouldering animosity in a 
blaze, which laid a great part of the capital in ruins, and 
cost the lives of hundreds of citizens. It is a scene 
almost worthy of the great Erench Eevolution — almost as 
chaotic and bewildering. The Emperor was seated in the 
Hippodrome celebrating the festival of the Ides of January 
(1 3th). But the games were perpetually interrupted by the 
clamour of the " green" faction, until exasperated almost to 
madness, the "blues" rose from their seats as one man, 
and the "greens" fled for their lives. At this moment of 
frenzy, the mutual hatred of tu.e factions was turned into 



The Emperor JtLstinian 177 

a common hatred of the government by a passing accident. 
Two murderers condemned to death, but rescued from 
fate by the breaking of a rope, were hurried into " sanc- 
tuary" by the monks of a neighbouring convent. One 
of them was " blue," the other " green." The rival 
factions, united for the moment by a similar indignation, 
and each anxious to save its man, made common cause, 
delivered their prisoners, opened the prisons, burnt the 
Prsefect's palace, and did not scruple to attack the troops 
sent to repress the riot. The fire spread, and reached 
even the cathedral. Women took a ferocious part in the 
struggle, showering stones from roof and window. So 
threatening, indeed, was the state of affairs, that many 
wealthy families escaped across the Bosporus from the 
horrors of a five days' street fight, and that even Justinian 
contemplated flight and abdication. From this fatal step 
he was saved by the firmness of Theodora, and in hardly 
a less degree by the mihtary promptitude of a great general, 
Belisarius. A terrible lesson was given to a fickle popula- 
tion, by a general massacre in the Hippodrome, and by the 
execution of a score of nobles who had tried to use the 
opportunity for restoring the family of Anastasius. The 
Hippodrome itself was closed, to hear no more for several 
years the watchword of "victory" (i/t/ca) of the rival 
factions which gave its name to this riot. 

Belisarius compared to Marlborough. — The name 
of Behsarius recalls us to whrt in the eyes of his contemp- 
oraries was probably the great glory of Justinian's reign, 
the African and Italian campaigns. For Belisarius as 
"signally retrieved" the glory of the Empire in the sixth 
century as Marlborough that of England in the eighteenth. 
There is, indeed, a strange hkeness between the two men, 
not only of character, but even in their very lives. Eacli 
was the devoted husband of an imperious, passionate, and 

ROM. BMP. 1^ 



178 History of the Roman Empire 

ambitious ■woman. Each, felt the bitterness of disgrace, 
though Marlborough probably deserved to suffer what 
Belisarius suffered undeserved. Each triumphed over 
jealousy and obstructions by the same qualities of calm- 
ness, and good sense, and a serene temper. Each was 
perfectly fearless and unflurried in the face of danger, the 
very life and soul of the armies which they led. We 
may say with truth, that each seemed to combine two 
characters in one person; for in each case he who in the 
field was calm, clear headed, and more than a match for 
every foe, was in civil life infirm and pusillanimous, greedy 
alike of honours and of money, a friend whose fidelity 
was doubtful. If Marlborough was the greater soldier of 
the two, Belisarius was the purer character. It could 
not indeed be said of him, as it was of Marlborough, that 
he never besieged a fortress which he had not taken, 
nor fought a battle which he had not won, yet neither 
could he be accused of having enriched himself by base 
means, or of having sold State secrets to his sovereign's 
enemies. 

African Campaign of Belisarius — a.d. 533. — Beli- 
sarius (Beli-tzar, the White Prince) was probably of 
Slavonian origin, and born in a little village of Illyria, 
called " Germania." At an early age he entered on 
military life in the "Guards" of Justinian. Entrusted 
with an independent command in Armenia, he was the 
first to turn the tide of victory against the Persians, and 
with far inferior numbers to defeat a foe flushed with 
conquest, and to relieve the province of Syria from in- 
vasion (a.d. 529-532). It was a great exploit, significant 
of powers above the common; and when the African ex- 
pedition was in preparation (a.d. 533), the name of Beli- 
sarius was in all mouths as the fittest leader of so grave 
an undertaking. Indeed, the African campaign was one 



The Emperor Justinian 179 

of those tilings whicli are only justified by success. The 
Emperor in proposing it met with general opposition. 
Old men, still living, could remember the shame and the 
losses of the expedition of Basiliscus (a.d. 468), and feared 
a repetition of the blunder. Troops, wearied with five 
campaigns against the Persians, shrank from the thought 
of a long sea voyage, and of a climate and enemy alike 
unknown; while ministers of finance calculated with 
apprehension the heavy expenses of so immense an under- 
taking, and the dubious possibilities of meeting them. 
To these various objections Justinian opposed a superior 
knowledge, or a superior obstinacy, based upon a truer 
insight into the facts of the case. And his wisdom was 
proved by success. Yet prior to the event few under- 
takings could have seemed less likely to succeed, and to 
succeed with such rapidity and ease. 

Position of the Vandals. — When Genseric died 
in A.D. 477, the Vandals were absolute masters of the 
splendid province of Africa. They had sacked Eome, 
They swept the Mediterranean with their fleets. They 
even threatened Constantinople. There was no barbarian 
nation that seemed to have so commanding a position, so 
glorious a future. Yet in the fifty years that elapsed 
between Genseric and Justinian, their Empire, which still 
looked as powerful as ever, had become honeycombed by 
luxury, inaction, and religious and social strife. To the 
Vandals Carthage became a second Capua. When the 
strong hand was withdrawn, that had kept up the healthy 
stir of battle and the excitement of conquest, they relapsed 
into the vices of semi-civilised life. In religion they 
were fanatics, and persecuted the orthodox Catholics, 
thus preparing for their enemies eager allies in the time 
of need. Lastly, to prevent the strife of brothers so 
common in the division of an inheritance, Genseric had 



i8o History of the Roman Empire 

ordained in Lis will, that the eldest male memlDer of the 
royal family for the time being should sit upon the 
Vandal throne, just as the law of Turkey ordains now. 
His kinsmen, the English, were wiser in Britain, when, 
they made the English kingship elective, but restricted 
the election as a rule to a particular royal family. Eor 
Genseric's plan failed as wholly as the English plan suc- 
ceeded. It issued almost of course in jealousies and 
assassination. Thus Huneric succeeded Genseric in a.d. 
476, and steadily set himself at once to prepare for his 
own son's succeeding him, by destroying all who might 
stand in his way. And in a.d. 523, when Trasimund 
died, who had married Amalafrida, the daughter of the 
great Theodoric, and was succeeded by Hilderic, the eldest 
member of the family, Amalafrida, unable to bear the pros- 
pect of private life, tried to seize the throne; but was de- 
feated, imprisoned, and, after her father's death (a.d. 526), 
beheaded, — a fate which was shared by many of her country- 
men. Hilderic, however, was incompetent. Brought up 
at the Byzantine court, he was more Greek than Vandal, 
and shrank from war and the fierce persecuting spirit 
of his subjects. A friend of Justinian, and tolerant to 
Catholics, he was no friend of Arian Vandals ; and Gelimer, 
the next heir, easily supplanted him (a.d. 530). 

Africa Reduced in Three Months. — l!^o doubt 
Justinian was well aware of this weakness which political 
and religious dissension had brought upon the Vandal 
kingdom, and adroitly used Gelimer's usurpation as a 
pretext for interference. A force of 10,000 infantry and 
5,000 cavalry, of 500 transports and 20,000 seamen, was 
collected, and set out from Constantinople in June (a.d. 
633). By the close of the year the Vandal Empire was at 
an end, and Africa was once more a province of the 
Eoman Empire for 150 years. It was a curious mixture 



The Emperor Justinian 1 8 1 

of races wMcli Belisarius led to the conquest of the once 
terrible Vandals, — Greeks and Goths, Alani and Par- 
thians, Huns and Syrians. It was a proof of military 
genius in itself to maintain the discipline and combine 
the operations of such an ill-assorted host. Three months, 
however, after leaving the capital, the fleet sighted the 
coast of Africa, having touched in passing at the coasts of 
Messenia and Sicily. It is a strange fact, which needs 
explanation, that it was allowed to reach Africa without 
attack. Heavy laden transports, and soldiers little used 
to the sea, would have fallen an easy prey. Why were 
the Vandals so remiss? Why did not the Ostrogoths 
help their brothers in distress % The answer is short and 
ready. The Ostrogoths, indignant at the murder of 
Amalafrida and her friends, were eager for revenge, and 
ready therefore to aid, not Gelimer, but Belisarius; while 
Gelimer had detached his brother with 5000 veteran 
troops to reduce Sardinia. At the critical moment, there- 
fore, he was without his best troops and without allies, 
while the friends of Hilderic and the orthodox Catholics 
were his all but open enemies. ISTo wonder that the 
struggle was virtually over in three months. 

The army landed on September 22 at Caput Vada, on 
the coast of Byzacium, five days' march to the south of Car- 
thage. A proclamation of Belisarius, that he had come 
as a " liberator," and the disciphne of his troops, won the 
people's good wiU, and made the advance safe and easy to 
within ten miles of Carthage. The capital at this time 
had no fortifications. A battle in its defence, therefore, 
was imperative. But Gelimer's army was beaten in detail, 
and fled in confusion towards !Numidia; while Belisarius 
entered Carthage in triumph the next day, the feast of 
St Cyprian, its patron saint. It was a marvellous revo- 
lution^ yet so quietly accomplished, that trade did not 



i82 History of the Roman Empire 

cease for a day, nor was a sliop shut. Meanwliile Gelimer 
hurriedly recalled his brother from Sardinia, and prepared 
for the decisive struggle. His numbers were vastly superior, 
but they were more than outweighed by the genius of 
Belisarius. The battle was fought on the banks of a 
rivulet, twenty miles south-west of Carthage, and was 
fiercely contested; but was in the end so decisive, that 
Gelimer fled alone from the field, his army was scattered 
to the winds, and the camp taken, with all the women, 
children, and treasure. From December to March a.d. 
534, Gelimer was an outcast in ISTumidia, until at last, after 
sustaining with a few faithful followers a hard siege in a 
mountain fastness, he surrendered at discretion, and being 
carried to Carthage, was transported by Belisarius, with 
many of his countrymen and with vast treasures, to adorn 
the first triumph ever seen in the city of Constantine. 
" Vanity of vanities ! all is vanity," such is said to have 
been his comment on what he had seen. And indeed it 
is the fittest comment on the Vandal history. Gelimer 
was allowed to retire to an estate in Galatia, and nume- 
rous Vandals were drafted into the armies of the East. 
But the Vandal nation, numbering before the war 
600,000 persons, vanishes henceforth from history; and 
Africa, like Italy, was ruled by an "Exarch" from 
Constantinople. 

Pretext for the Invasion of Italy. — Two years 
elapsed, and once more the great general of Justinian was 
engaged in a struggle, more arduous and not less glorious, 
with the Ostrogoths in Italy. In the ten years which had 
elapsed since the death of Theodoric, the same causes had 
been at work to undermine the Gothic power which had 
undermined the Vandal power in Africa. As in Africa 
so in Italy, Catholics hated Arians and Arians hated 
Catholics. In Italy as in Africa political dissensions 



The Emperor Justmian 183 

paralysed national strength. Amalasontha, daughter of 
TheodoriCj had been regent for her son Athalaric, whom she 
loved only too well, and strove to train for his future great- 
ness. But he was dull and self-willed; and as he grew 
older was easily led into resenting a woman's dictation, 
and breaking away from her influence, flung himself into 
debauchery, which speedily killed him. But Amalasontha 
had enemies besides her son. And when, after his death, 
she married her cousin Theodatus, but retained in her 
own hands the substance of the regal power, keeping her 
husband in the background, he was led by evil counsellors 
and his own jealous resentment into conspiring against 
her. This able daughter of a great father, the victim of 
spite and jealousy, was arrested, imprisoned in an island 
of the lake of Bolsena (Etruria), and finally strangled in 
her bath (April 30, 535). Theodatus was king at last; 
but the insecurity of his position may be realised by 
reflecting on the crimes which had placed him there, the 
avarice and cowardice of his character, and the disafi'ection 
of his Catholic subjects. 

Belisarius Reduces Sicily and South Italy — 
A.D. 536. — Meanwhile Justinian eagerly caught at this 
excuse for intervention, this opportunity of reclaiming yet 
another province for the Empire. His ambassador to 
Italy loudly protested against the murder of Theodoric's 
daughter, while he observed with satisfaction the dissen- 
sions of the Goths, and doubtless reported to his master 
the ripeness of the times. Once more Belisarius steered 
westwards. Hardly had he cast anchor off Catana before 
he discovered that the whole island of Sicily was like a 
ripe apple ready to fall into his hands; and this, the first 
province of the Eoman Republic, was reincorporated with 
the Empire without a blow. A second time Belisarius 
appeared as " liberator," to set free Eomans from the yoke 



1 84 History of the Roman Empire 

of barbarians, Catholics from the tyranny of Arians. A 
few brief and fruitless negotiations were followed by tbe 
invasion of Italy. Leaving garrisons in Palermo and 
Syracuse, Belisarius landed at Ehegium, and marching 
300 miles along the coast through a well-affected popula- 
tion, besieged and took l!^aples. From ]!!^aples he was 
invited by the clergy and Senate to occupy Rome, — a 
matter of no difficulty, as Theodatus had been murdered, 
and the scattered Gothic forces had retired to Eavenna 
and the north to concentrate for the iinal struggle. Beli- 
sarius entered Eome on December 10, a.d. 536, and the 
keys of the city were sent to Justinian. 

Siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths— a. d. 537.— 
But the triumph was short-lived. In the following March 
Vitiges returned with 150,000 Goths, and crossing the 
Apennines, appeared before the walls of Eome. The 
numbers were so unequal, the time for preparation had 
been so short, that everything seemed lost; but it was at 
a crisis such as this that the resource and coolness of 
Belisarius were most marked. Of him it might well be 
said, that his presence was worth 100,000 men. He had 
but a few thousand men in the city, and what volunteers 
he could inspire with his own enthusiasm and courage, to 
guard fortifications, whose extent was at least twelve 
miles. The walls themselves in parts were in ruins. Yet 
Eome held out successfully for more than a year, thanks 
to the strong arm, clear head, and unfailing calmness of 
one man, and one man only, who united strategical genius 
and mastery of detail to dashing and audacious bravery 
in the field. The Gothic numbers were not sufficient to 
surround the city, the blockade reaching only from the 
Vatican to the Proenestine Gate; and on this side it was 
that on the nineteenth day of the siege (March 31, a.d. 
537) a simultaneous attack was directed on seven points at 



The Emperor Justmian 185 

once. Eepeated assaults were met by an obstinate resist- 
ance; and only once, near the gate of Proeneste, did the 
defence waver for a moment. At nightfall the Goths 
retired, with a loss (it was said) of 30,000 men. Whether 
this were so or not, it is clear that the result was a heavy 
blow to the besiegers; for it was the first and last assault 
attempted, and the siege became little more than an 
indolent blockade. l!^evertheless the superiority of 
numbers told outside. Porto fell. Entrenched camps 
were established by the enemy to the north and south of 
the city. Provisions became scarce; and the frequent 
sallies, though mostly successful, contributed little beyond 
honour. And with distress began disaffection within the 
walls, and with disaffection came treachery. A letter was 
intercepted, which promised the Gothic king that the 
Asinarian Gate should be opened to his troops. JSTor was 
this all. The dangerous discontent within the walls was 
adroitly used by Antonina, Belisarius' wife, to forward the 
wishes of the Empress. Pope Silverius had thwarted 
Theodora; and was now accused of treasonable corre- 
spondence with the Goths, and degraded; while an un- 
scrupulous and ambitious deacon, Vigilius, was placed 
upon the Papal throne, who would probably be more 
compliant. 

At last, after urgent demands, reinforcements reached 
Belisarius from Constantinople of some 7000 men; and 
negotiations began in consequence, which were the pre- 
cursors of the raising of the siege. At the same time the 
general felt himself strong enough to detach 2000 cavalry 
to operate in Picenum against the Gothic communications 
with Eavenna, and to seize if possible the many families 
and large treasures there deposited. 

Siege Raised — a.d. 538. — This last blow was deci- 
sive; and Yitiges, after one more attempt to surprise and 



1 86 History of the Roman Empire 

storm the walls, which was vigorously repulsed, with- 
drew hurriedly across the Tiber and along the Flaminian 
Eoad. So great was the demoralisation of the once vast 
army, that even Ariminum, of ,which Yitiges formed the 
siege as he passed northwards, and which was defended 
only by a low rampart and shallow ditch, held out against 
him long enough to be relieved by Belisarius in person. 
The Goths fled in confusion to Eavenna; and all Italy, 
south of the Po, gave willing allegiance to Justinian. 

Fall of Ravenna — a.d. 639. — Italy was virtually 
regained; and the power of the Ostrogoths would soon 
have been destroyed, but for the mutual jealousy of the 
Eoman generals. Belisarius was too great to escape envy, 
too great also to resent it : yet the violence of a Constan- 
tine, and the interference or independence of a Parses, 
paralysed the operations of the Eoman army, and gave the 
Goths time to rally what force they could ; while a sud- 
den inroad into JSTorth Italy of 100,000 Franks, under 
Theodebert their king, added to the general confusion. 
As before, however, so now, Belisarius triumphed over 
difficulties. Jealousies were smoothed over. Eivals 
were pacified. Town after town was besieged and taken, 
which had still been held by the Goths. Finally, 
Eavenna itself was blockaded. Gradually reduced to 
extremities, yet lost in admiration of their victor, the 
Ostrogoths (ignoring Yitiges their king) opened negotia- 
tions with Belisarius, and promised to support him, if he 
would throw Justinian over, and seize the crown of Italy. 
Belisarius saw his opportunity, and promised to consider 
the matter. Meanwhile a day and hour was fixed for the 
surrender of Eavenna: a fleet laden with food was sent 
in to relieve immediate wants; and at the time fixed the 
Eoman army marched in unresisted, and took possession 
of the capital, without their general being in any way 



The Emperor Justinian 187 

pledged (December, a.d. 539). It was then too late to 
oppose what they had themselves invited. Eelisarius de- 
clined the proffered honour, perhaps had never intended to 
accept it : Yitiges was sent to Constantinople : the flower 
of the Gothic warriors was enlisted in the Imperial ser- 
vice; the residue were dismissed to the south provinces; 
and an Italian colony was planted in Eavenna. The 
example of the capital was speedily followed by the 
smaller towns, that still held out, with the exception of 
Pavia ; and thus the whole of Italy was reincorporated 
with the Empire. 

Recall of Belisarius. — It was a wonderful reverse of 
fortune, which ten years before would have been thought 
impossible; and yet the great man to whom it was mainly 
due was pursued by envy and calumny, and was recalled 
by Justinian from a sphere "no longer (it was said) 
worthy of his presence." The Gothic spoil was appro- 
priated for the Imperial palace, and Belisarius was denied 
a second triumph; yet it is satisfactory to know that the 
hearty admiration of the people made up for the chilling 
civility and faint praises of Court circles. For indeed it 
was no common thing which Belisarius had done. It 
was something to have maintained military discipline, 
without losing the affection of his soldiers : it was more 
to have won the respect and admiration of populations 
among whom he came as conqueror. In an age not dis- 
tinguished for virtues, either political or social, he was 
just, liberal, modest, and chaste. He was daring without 
rashness, prudent without fear; and by the combination 
of the highest qualities of a general had recovered in 
little more than six years the provinces of Africa and 
Italy. 

Revolt of the Goths — a.d. 544. — Belisarius was 
recalled, and sent to the East; and the settlement of 



1 88 History of the Roman Empire 

Italy was left to his successors. But three years' experi- 
ence of the tender mercies of Greek "governors" was 
more than enough; and when TotHa (Todilas, "the death- 
less") issued from Pa via to reclaim the Gothic kingdom, 
town after town from north to south welcomed him as 
deliverer. Oiice more at the Emperor's command Beli- 
sarius turned his face westwards. But Imperial jealousy 
or parsimony refused him the sinews of war: Eome was 
twice taken (a.d. 546-549), once under his very eyes; 
and once recovered by him, though but for a while (a.d. 
547). Tor the most part, he was left with the hopeless 
task of calculating what he could do, if he had the neces- 
sary force; or of collecting forces, when it was too late to 
use them. In a.d. 548 he returned to Constantinople, 
leaving Totila master of Italy, and with the mortification 
of abandoning what he knew could be so easily recovered. 
But although he was jealous of his general, Justinian was 
not inclined to acquiesce in the loss of Italy, so lately 
recovered. 

Narses in Italy — a.d. 552.- — A fresh force was raised, 
and entrusted first to Germanus, the Emperor's nephew, 
and on his death to I!^arses, the eunuch, who marched 
into Italy, defeated Totila in a pitched battle about mid- 
way between Eome and Eavenna, in which Totila was 
mortally wounded (a.d. 552), and besieged and took 
Eome. One more campaign against Teias, the last king of 
the Ostrogoths — one more victory in Campania, and the 
work was accomplished. Italy was for the thhd time 
reunited to the Empire; and IS'arses was for fifteen years 
(a.d. 554-568) Exarch of Eavenna, lieutenant of the 
Eastern Empire in Italy. 

Conclusion. — Henceforth the Ostrogothic nation dis- 
appears from history ; and the glory of the name " Goth " 
is reserved for the Visigoths. Twice before had the same 



The Emperor yustinian 189 

thing happened. Etruscans and Carthaginians vanished 
from the earth as separate nations, leaving httle "behind 
them but a few medals and inscriptions. Only, we 
must remember, it is the vanishing of a name, and not 
necessarily of a nation — the bearers of the name being 
absorbed in the population which they have ceased to 
rule. This absorption or conquest of the Goths in Italy 
was to a great degree the work of the Catholic clergy — 
one of the early steps in that fatal policy of the Papacy, 
which has always resisted the union of Italy under one 
native kingdom, whether G-othic, Lombard, iJ^orman, or 
Piedmontese. And whatever may have been the con- 
spicuous merits of the generals who achieved it, it is the 
opinion of an Italian authority that greater evil was 
inflicted upon Italy by the Grecian reconquest, than by 
any other invasion. ^ It was disastrous in its immediate 
and more remote consequences. The country was worse, 
not better governed j and in after years, the irruption of 
the Lombards, the invasion of the Franks, the usurpa- 
tion of the Popes, and the separation of Eastern and 
Western Christendom, are events for which it was in- 
directly responsible. 

^ Gibbon, Milman's Edition, vol. iv. p. 150, note. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE EMPIRE IN RELATION TO THE BAR- 
BARIANS OF THE EAST— A.D. 450-650. 

Subject of the Chapter. — Tlie relations of the 
Eoman Empire of the East to the barbarous nations on 
its northern, eastern, and south-eastern frontiers, during 
the two centuries following Attila's death, will be the 
subject of this chapter. It is a chequered story of fre- 
quent disaster, illumined at intervals by heroic deeds. 
We have names yet more barbarous, barbarians yet more 
brutal than any hitherto met with; but the knowledge of 
their origin and fortunes is important, because in some 
cases they occupied lands which their descendants still 
possess, and in almost all cases they largely affected the 
subsequent history of Europe. 

Results of the Death of Attila — a.d. 453. — The 
death of Attila (a.d. 453) was followed by a struggle of 
several years for mastery between the Aryan and Turanian 
portions of his Empire. Though the question at issue 
was too vital to be settled by a single battle, yet the 
victory of Netad did virtually decide that Europe was to 
belong to Aryans, by rolling backwards the threatening 
wave of blank barbarism for a while, and by giving the 
nobler races time to consolidate their forces, and to assimi- 
late the civilisation of Western Europe, before another 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 191 

struggle was necessary. But the Turanians did not 
quietly acquiesce in their defeat. More than once the 
Huns attacked the Gepidae and Ostrogoths, though always 
without success. They were compelled to yield to 
superior strength ; and the sons of Attila — Dengizikh, 
Hernakh, and Emnedzar — ^became kings of three separate 
Hunnish nations, reaching from the Lower Danube to 
the Carpathians, and from thence to the Don (Tanais). 
They were sometimes at peace, more often at war with 
their Roman neighbours to the south. The death ot 
Dengizikh (about a.d. 470) was the signal of universal 
confusion among the tribes to the north of the Danube, 
and of a general rearrangement of their mutual rela- 
tions. We have tribes with familiar names occupying 
new ground, and new tribes with strange names appear- 
ing on the scene, and pressing westward and southward. 

Dangers on the Frontiers — a.d. 500. — If we take 
the boundaries of the Eastern Empire about a.d. 500 — 
the Danube, the Euxine, the Caucasus, Armenia, and the 
Euphrates — there was scarcely a point in this immense 
frontier which was not threatened by some enemy, and 
needed constant watching. And th«re was not strength 
enough in the Empire for successful resistance. Again 
and again Mcesi^, IllyTi<ium, Greece, were overrun by 
destroying hordes. More than once Constantinople was 
threatened, attacked, besieged. Armenia was a constant 
battlefield. And in the south-east Persia, ruled by an 
ambitious dynasty, was always encroaching on the frontier. 

The Middle Danube. — The middle Danube was now 
a German river. In Pannonia were Ostrogoths, reaching 
from Vienna to Belgrade (Singidunum) and Illyricum. 
On the eastern and northern banks, as far as the Car- 
pathians, lay the Gepidse and the Lombards. On the 
northern banks of the river to the east of Singidunum, and 



192 History of the Roman Empire 

■witllin the territory of the Gepidse, was a large population 
of different origin. They were the descendants of the old 
Eoman colonists, who had flocked there 400 years before, 
after Trajan's conquest of Dacia, and whose children had 
refused to leave their homes when Aurelian abandoned 
the province (a.d. 270). These men had endured with 
sullen persistence the tender mercies of successive bar- 
barians, but clung through them all to their land- — the 
land which their children still occupy. They called them- 
selves Romans; but as in Britain, so in Dacia, the Ger- 
man conquerors called these ''men of a strange tongue," 
Wealh or Welsh. And hence came the double name of 
their country, Eoumania and Wallachia. 

Eastern Danube and North Coast of the 
Buxine. — In what is now the Dobrudscha, near the 
mouth of the Danube, and from thence as far as the 
Dnieper (Danapris) was a mixed horde of Huns, the 
remnant of Attila,'s host, and of a cognate Finnish race, 
the Bulgarians (Voulgar). The Empire had good cause 
during the seventh century to shudder at this name, the 
synonym for all that was brutal and treacherous. The 
original home of the people, where indeed the bulk of 
them were still settled, was the upper waters of the river 
Etel, called afterwards by their name, the Volga. But, 
already in the days of the great Theodoric, one of their 
hordes had been met and defeated by him in the plain of 
the Dniester (Danaster) ; and it must have been clear to 
all who had eyes to see, that there was danger to the 
Empire in that quarter. The very religion which they 
professed was of the lowest type. It was that ^ " Sham- 
anism," which still prevails, as the sole religion of thou- 
sands in North-Eastern Asia — a religion, or more properly 
speaking a "terror," inspired by the awful phenomena of 
^ Cf. Keunan's Tent Life in Siberia, cap. 20. 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 193 

nature, among which they live, and consisting in the pro- 
pitiation of the evil spirits supposed to be embodied 
therein, the spirits of ice and wind, of volcanoes and 
aurora. As in the religion, so in the people, there was 
something almost diabolical and less than human. Their 
ferocity and treachery were alike unparalleled. And by 
their side the Huns, who had been in contact with 
Roman civilisation for nearly a century, seemed civilised. 

Huns on the Tanais. — Beyond the Dnieper, and 
on each side of the Don (Tanais), were settled two hordes 
of " white " Huns, called respectively Cutriguri and 
TJtiguri, in all probability a fusion of Finns and Ugrians 
(Igours or Ogors): to the latter of whom, and their 
terrible reputation in less barbarous countries, we owe the 
familiar " Ogres " of our children's story books. 

The Slavonians. — To the north and north-west of 
Huns and Bulgarians, between the Dnieper, the Car- 
pathians, and the Baltic, lay a scattered though numerous 
population, who were called "Slaves" (Sclavi, Sthloveni, 
]§KXa/?oi), and were possibly Aryan by origin, certainly 
very far removed from Turanians. They were divided 
into three tribes — Antes in the south-east, Sloveni in the 
centre, and Wends or Yenedi on the Baltic. The name 
is derived from " Slova," " speech," and is defined as 
meaning "those who speak the same language." As a 
term of identification, therefore, it was the opposite of 
Welsh, or foreigner. Like the Eomans of Wallachia, the 
Slaves had for generations been subject to nations fiercer 
or stronger than themselves; but when the centrifugal 
force of disruption after the battle of II^Tetad drove the 
Huns to the East, and precipitated the Goths across the 
Danube, the Slaves for once were left without a master, 
and began to act a part of their own in history. The 
Slavonian character was a counterpart of their history. 

ROM. BMP. N 



194 History of the Roman Empire 

Less fiery than Germans, less brutal tlian Huns or Bul- 
garians, they had the apathetic, lazy, yet hospitable, habits 
of a serf population, subject to alternations of violent 
ferocity. Even in war their tactics were not the tactics 
of freemen. There was no combination or plan of opera- 
tion. The fighting was individual ; and they excelled in 
ambushes and surprises. Of cleanliness or self-restraint, of 
modesty or religious feeling, they had only the faintest trace. 

Avars, Turks, &;c., in Eastern Europe. — Ostro- 
goths, Lombards, Gepidse, Slaves, Huns, and Bulgarians — 
it was a formidable mass, if only in dead weight, against 
which to defend a long river frontier. But there were other 
tribes and confederations of tribes in the far north-east 
and the steppes of Asia beginning to move westwards, 
whose pressure was aheady making itself felt, and whose 
names figure largely in after history — Avars, Hunga- 
rians, Turks, and Mongols. Of the first of these more 
will be said presently. The last three did not afl^'ect the 
history of Europe till some centuries later. 

Persia. — ^The south-eastern frontier was another weak 
point of the Empire. Here lay the great kingdom of 
Persia, stretching from the Indus to the Euphrates, from 
the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf, and conterminous with 
the Empire from Colchis to the Upper Euphrates. Eor 
1000 years that part of Asia had been the seat of a great 
Empire. The first Persian monarchy, founded by Cyrus 
(B.C. 558), and overthrown by Alexander of Macedon 
(B.C. 330), had given place to a Greek kingdom; which 
meant, in fact, only the supremacy of Greeks over alien 
and heterogeneous populations. Against this supremacy 
the Turanian Parthians successfully revolted under 
Arsaces (b.c. 255), and gradually established a powerful 
Empire of their own in its place (b.c. 174). It was 
these Parthians, with whom the Romans of the later 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 195 

Eepublic and early Empire were so often at war, and 
wliom Horace calls indifferently PartMans, Medes, and 
Persians. But the influence of Greece in the East was 
not destroyed by the downfall of the Greek kingdom, any 
more than the influence of Eome in the West was de- 
stroyed by the downfall of the Western Empire. Greek 
ideas, customs, and fashions had spread, and modified 
even the religion of the upper and learned classes. Zoro- 
astrianism was losing its hold on them. But the mass of 
the people clung to the belief of their fathers, and shrank 
from the civilisation of the West as much as Orientals of 
the present day. A reaction set in j of which Ardshir 
(Artaxerxes), son of Sassan, cleverly availed himself, and 
a successful revolt against Parthian domination restored to 
the Persians their old supremacy (a.d. 226). It was a 
revolt partly of Aryans against Turanians, partly of con- 
servative feeling against innovations. Greek influence 
was stamped out, Greek ideas were opposed, whenever 
and wherever it was possible. The dynasty of the 
Sassanidse was in a special sense '■'■national^'' and based 
its power and popularity on that ground. It was also an 
ambitious and conquering dynasty, bent on enlarging and 
extending its boundaries, and hence constantly at war 
with Eome j from whom, indeed, in a.d. 430 half Armenia 
had been wrested, and who in the sixth century seemed 
about to lose Syria and Palestine as well. 

Barbarian Irruptions across the Danube — a.d. 
500-560. — The pressure southwards from the nations 
along the Danube was constant and almost irresistible, 
and the sufi'erings of the Eoman provincials from barbarian 
inroads so cruel, that it is a wonder the inhabitants of 
capital and provinces ahke did not rise as one man to 
defend themselves; but the latter were cowed by sad 
experiences, and the former absorbed in weighing the 



196 History of the Roman Empire 

comparative shades of heresy in a ISTestorius and a Eutyches. 
Meanwhile, however, the danger was pressing. In a.d. 
499, a combined horde of Huns, Wends, and Bulgarians 
crossed the Danube on the ice, crushed a Eoman army 
with the loss of one-fourth of its numbers, and then retired 
with its booty. In a.d. 517 the invasion was repeated; 
and in a.d. 530, and in a.d. 533. In a.d. 538, while 
Belisarius was in Italy, Gothic intrigues precipitated the 
same people again across the Danube ; and we may gather 
what was implied in such an irruption, if we try to realise 
the vast numbers of unoffending farmers and citizens in- 
volved in a plundering foray, which extended from the 
Chersonese to the Adriatic, and from the Danube to 
Corinth, and in which even Asia Minor suffered heavily. 
In the absence of soldiers, courage, discipline, and patriot- 
ism, the Emperors did what they could. Anastasius 
carried a stone rampart of fifty miles in length from the 
Euxine to the Propontis, at a distance of forty miles 
from the capital, to guard it against a surprise. Justin 
strengthened the defences of Mossia. Justinian fortified 
the great cities on the Danube, and inaugurated the policy 
of fostering the jealousies and utilising the hostihty of 
tribe against tribe. It would have been weU had he been 
able to repress his own jealousy of his own successful 
generals — of Germanus, and N arses, and Belisarius. And 
yet nothing but the courage, sMU, and resources of Beli- 
sarius saved Justinian and his capital in a.d. 559, when 
Zabergan led a horde of Bulgarians and Slaves to the 
south of Mount Hsemus, and almost surprised Constanti- 
nople. Eor this service Belisarius was honoured with a 
" recall." If few things are sadder than a life of success- 
ful energy ending in poverty and failure, the last years ot 
Justinian were sad indeed. The money saved by Anas- 
tasius was spent; the Empire was too poor' to pay taxes; 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 197 

the soldiers' pay diminislied, and with it the number of 
soldiers; and the Emperor was afraid to go to war, for the 
army had dwindled to one-fourth of its numbers, the 
sinews of war were wanting, and a successful and popular 
general would have been a dangerous rival. 

The Avars — ^evSaySape?.— In A.D. 557 an embassy 
arrived at Constantinople that aroused great curiosity. 
They were not Huns, so familiar to the capital, for they 
wore their hair long, and a long double tress or pigtail 
behind, fastened with ribbon. And yet their dress and 
language were those of Huns. They called themselves 
Avars ("A/Bapes), and offered their arms to the Empire in 
exchange for money and land, which they demanded with 
scant courtesy. Justinian temporised. Of land he said 
nothing (in fact, what land had he to offer ?), but they were 
already on the shores of the Caspian, and money and 
presents were much at their service, if they would vex 
and harass the Emperor's restless foes on the Euxine and 
the Caucasus. It mattered little which conquered. The 
Empire would gain in having one enemy the less. The 
Avars obeyed. They fell furiously on Huns and Slaves 
without distinction, and in five years (a.d. 557-562) had 
destroyed or subjugated the tribes settled between the 
Caucasus and the Danube, and far up the valleys of the 
Dnieper and the Dniester, and founded an Empire of their 
own. Then came, as might be anticipated, the inevitable 
claim for " land." A second embassy was sent to Con- 
stantinople, reciting the services of the Avars, and request- 
ing to see the lands intended for their use. What Justinian 
might have felt or said, had he known Only what he knew 
five years before, it is hard to determine. As it was, his 
eyes ha-d been opened. Shortly before, an embassy had 
arrived from yet another and a more terrible Eastern 
people, the Turks, claiming, in the name of the great Khau 



198 History of the Roman Empire 

(Khakan, Chaganus), the subjects who had fled from his 
hand, and who had falsely called themselves Avars. He 
had heard that the Emperor had allied himself with these 
slaves; where were they % Justinian was confounded, as 
well he might be, apologised for his strange mistake, and 
hastened to make an alliance with his new friends, espe- 
cially with a view to turning their arms against the 
Persians ; while the Avar embassy met with but a cool 
reception, and, indeed, would have been sent off unheard, 
had it been safe to do so. The Danube, however, was too 
near to Constantinople. 

True Story of " False Avars." — The true story 
of these "false Avars" is as curious as any in history. 
Their real name had been " Ouar-Khouni" (Ovap Km. 
Xomvi), the latter half of which stamps them as Huns; 
and they were probably a branch of those Ugrians or 
Ogors who were settled in the fifth and sixth centuries to 
the north of the Caspian and east of the Yolga. They 
had formed a part of the vast Empire of the genuine 
Avars, stretching from China to the Volga, and at their 
downfall had become subjects with them of the great 
Khan of the Turks. Transplantations of population (as 
of the Jews to Babylon) were so common in huge Empires, 
that it is not strange to hear of both Avars and Ouar- 
Khouni being transported to the far East by their new 
masters. The Avars were too broken down to dream of 
escape. "Not so the others. Watching their opportunity, 
the chief horde, numbering 200,000 men, took women 
and children, cattle and waggons, and essayed to flee, 
leaving three tribes behind them. Their course was west- 
ward, toward their old home. Of the fortunes and suffer- 
ings of this mass of human beings in their hurried flight 
no details are known, save that the terror of their name 
preceded them (for they were supposed to be the Avars, 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 199 

tlie old lords of Asia), and that tribe after tribe was 
trampled under foot, or rudely thrust upon its neighbours 
as they hurried on. But in one sense history repeats itself. 
And if we remember that they traversed leagues of wild 
ajid difficult country, with an enemy hanging on their 
rear, we shall realise the greatness of the feat they accom- 
plished, by comparing the famous flight of the Kalmuck 
Tartars from the tyranny of Catherine II. (a.d. 1771),^ or 
the yet more awful retreat of the French from Moscow 
(a.d. 1813).^ Thousands must have perished. The mere 
&peed of the J&ight, necessary to ensure safety, must have 
been an element itself of bitter misery to the women and 
children. Imagine the sleeplessness, the scanty food, the 
constant fighting; the rivers to be crossed; the cold to be 
endured; the old, the sick, the young children, drooping 
or abandoned. It is little wonder that the vast district 
which they traversed was thrown into utter confusion by 
the terrific and unexpected collision — a confusion which 
became a wild panic when these Huns assumed the 
fashions of their old masters, and the name of the dreaded 
"Avars." These were the men who fought Justinian's 
enemies, who resuscitated Attila's Empire on the Danube, 
who brought Constantinople to the verge of ruin, and who 
feU at last only before the sword of Charles the Great 
(a.d. 791-799). 

Avars Attack the Slaves. — Meanwhile these Ouar- 
Khouni, or false Avars, were on the Danube, and their 
ambassadors at Constantinople were awaiting Justinian's 
reply. Their demand was "land." He ofi'ered them a corner 
of Moesia, between the Gepidse and the Lombards, whom 
he had iavited from Bohemia to Pannonia. It was the old 
story over again, playing off one enemy against another. 

2 Cf. De Quincy, author's Edition, vol. iv. 
' Cf. Alison's Hist, Europe, vol. xvi. cap. 73. 



200 . History of the Roman Empire 

But they refused the offer, and "being provoked by the 
Antes, fell savagely on the Slavonian tribes, one after 
another, penetrating to the Baltic, and as far as the Thur- 
ingian Eorest. Here, however, thej?" met their match in 
the Franks, and returned once more to their old position, 
whence they could threaten or cajole the Court of Byzan- 
tium, And either course was now equally easy. Justinian 
and Belisarius were both dead; and Justin II. was no 
match for Baian, Chagan of the Avars. Justin was a 
mere pedant, with grand words ever on his lips, but with 
no common sense, or force of character, or knowledge of 
the world. As vain of his own powers as he was jealous 
of his uncle's glory, he made it his policy to reverse 
Justinian's. Where Justinian had diplomatised, Justin 
threatened, though unable to execute his threats; while 
the ingratitude and hauteur of Justin lost to the Empire 
tlie conquests of Justinian's generals. Whether it were 
Italians, or Avars, or Persians, he used the language of 
Marius to the Teutons, or Trajan to the Parthians, though 
he had neither the genius of the latter nor the troops of 
the former. He armed against the Empire all her enemies 
at once. Baian, on the other hand, was a second Attila. 
Quick to read other men's minds, and to profit by their 
mistakes; ready to fight, yet never making war save for a 
purpose; patient to endure even humihations till he could 
strike with a prospect of success; regarding oaths and 
treaties as only means to that success; generous, magnifi- 
cent, luxurious, he outlived three Emperors, and founded 
the second Empire of the Huns. By judicious alliances 
and timely wars he aggrandised his subjects at the ex- 
pense of their neighbours. He helped the Lombards to 
destroy the Gepidse (a.d. 566), and then occupied their 
land. By alternate force and intrigue he mastered the 
valley of the Save. He fixed his capital on the site of 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 201 

Attila's, between tlie Danulbe and the Theiss, whence he 
dominated ahke Huns, and Slaves, and Bulgarians, and 
could watch both Franks and E-omans. He trespassed 
on the Empire almost unperceived by a systematic series 
of small colonies of Slaves or Bulgarians, which he planted 
surreptitiously to the south of the Danube. The Eomans 
recoiled from the idea of destroying hundreds of unarmed 
colonists, and so took no notice; but the colonies, once 
planted, were subjects of Baian, who might, and did, 
claim the land they occupied. Finally, he brought west- 
ward the three tribes of Ouar-Khouni, who had refused 
to accompany the first fugitives. Baian's career, however, 
like Attila's, was not unchequered by failure, and before 
his death the firmness of the Emperor Maurice (a.d. 
587-602), and the ability of Priscus, inflicted on the 
Avars five serious defeats, drove them to the Theiss, and 
retrieved the honour of Eome. 

Persian Encroachments — a.d. 530-615. — All this 
while, however, when the Avars were threatening the 
northern frontier, an enemy hardly less formidable was 
steadily advancing on the south. Dm^ing the last fifty 
years Eome and Persia had been constantly at war; and 
the successful arms of Chosroes I. (or Il^ushirvan, a.d. 
631-579), had reduced Antioch, the caj)ital of Syria, and 
seemed to threaten even Constantinople. As before in 
Africa and Italy, and afterwards in Thrace, the genius of 
Belisarius again averted the pressing danger, and Chosroes 
withdrew to Mesopotamia (a.d. 541-2). It is needless to 
follow minutely the details of a varying struggle — the war 
in the reigns of Justin, Tiberius, and Maurice — the for- 
tunes of Bahram, who defeated both Eomans and Turks — 
the adventures of Chosroes II., the adopted son of Maurice, 
who was placed on his throne by Eoman arms. "When 
Maurice was murdered by an obscure centurion, Phocas 



202 History of the Roman Empire 

(a.d. 602), Chosroes, to avenge Ms "father's" death, 
invaded the Eoman dominions. He overran Syria, in 
vaded Palestine, and took Jerusalem by storm (a.d. 614). 
Egypt, Alexandria, Cyrene were reduced. A Persian army 
was seen on the shores of the Bosporus, and Chalcedon 
taken. It seemed as though between the Avars and the 
Persians the days of the Eastern Empire were numbered; 
but it had yet 800 years to hve, and in the hour of need 
the deliverer appeared. Heraclius, son of the Exarch of 
Africa, had been invited to free, and succeeded in freeing, 
the Empire from the tyranny of Phocas (a.d. 610). But 
hardly was he seated on the Imperial throne, before he 
heard of the fall of Antioch and the rapid progress of the 
Persian arms. Presently came tidings of heavier loss — ■ 
of the invasion of Galilee and yet holier places — of the 
massacre of Christians — of the pillage of the Church of 
the Eesurrection — of the removal of the " true cross " to 
Persia. This was a cross of wood, which popular belief 
supposed to have been that on which Christ was crucified, 
and to have been found by the Empress Helena, mother 
of Constantine the Great. It was preserved in a case of 
wrought silver. The emotion and profound grief felt in all 
Christendom at the loss of this holy relic are to us hardly 
intelligible. Many Christians even thought Christianity 
itself doomed. 

Heraclius Prepares for War — a.d. 615. — To 
many others, and Heraclius among them, it acted as a 
tonic, to rouse them from indolence and luxury. The 
Emperor swore that he would seek the holy cross even in 
the depths of Asia. What but a few weeks before would 
have seemed a Quixotic absurdity, was now caught up as 
an inspiration from heaven with almost as much fervour 
as the first Crusade. The ranks of the army soon filled. 
Bishops and clergy, rulers and people, poured their 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 203 

wealtb. into the treasury. Clinrclies remained open day 
and night, and frequent addresses kept up the enthusiasm 
to a high pitch. It was (for the moment) a genuine 
"revival" or reawakening of the whole Eoman world. 
The occasion, too, appeared favourahle. Italy was quiet, 
and the Exarchate at peace with its neighbours. Clotaire 
the Frank was no enemy to Heraclius, and in common 
with his clergy (being orthodox and not Arian) might be 
expected to- sympathise in so holy a cause. 

Treachery of the Avars — a.d. 616. — In one quarter 
only was there room for fear. The Avars were on the 
Danube, and the turbulence of the Avars was only equalled 
by their perfidy. Already, in a.d. 610, they had fallen 
suddenly on JSTorth Italy, and pillaged and harassed those 
same Lombards whom they had before helped to destroy 
the Gepidae. Previous to an absence, therefore, of years 
from his capital, it was essential for the Emperor to sound 
their intentions, and, if possible, to secure their neutrality. 
His ambassadors were welcomed with apparent cordiality, 
and an interview was arranged between the Chagan and 
Heraclius. The place was to be Heraclea. At the appointed 
time the Emperor set out from Selymbria to meet the 
Khan, decked with Imperial crown and mantle to honour 
the occasion. The escort was a handful of soldiers; but 
there was an immense cortege of high officials and of the 
fashionable world of Constantinople, and the whole 
country side was there to see. Presently some terrified 
peasants were seen making their way hurriedly towards 
Heraclius. They urged him to flee for his life; for armed 
Avars had been seen in small bodies, and might even now 
be between him and the capital. Heraclius knew too 
much to hesitate. He threw off his robes and fled, and 
but just in time. The Chagan had laid a deep plot. A 
large mass of men had been told off in small detachments 



204 History of the Roman Empire 

to inarch on Heraclea by different routes, thus escaping 
observation; and he hoped by this means to secure his 
prize. And indeed he only just failed. Heraclius had 
hardly turned before the Avars burst in upon the defence- 
less and unarmed crowd. There was a general sauve qui 
pent — officials, peasants, chariot-drivers. The Imperial 
baggage and robe were seized, but the hoped-for prize had 
flown. Heraclius was in Constantinople; and when the 
Avar cavalry arrived there, the gates were shut and the 
walls manned, and the city was ready for a siege. The 
promptitude of the Emperor had saved not only himself, 
but his capital also. And now the question was. What 
notice should be taken of this piece of treachery? War? 
But that would interfere with the more important Eastern 
expedition. And, besides, the Khan was profuse in his 
apologies for the rudeness and insubordination of his 
troops, which alone (he said) were in fault. He offered 
restitution, and added vow to vow as to his own good 
faith. In fact, if the Persian campaign were to be carried 
on, what else could Heraclius do but smother his feelings, 
affect to believe, conclude an alliance, and hope for the 
best {a.d. 616)? 

Heraclius Victorioiis in Persia — a.d. 622-628. — 
At last, being at peace with his enemies and all his pre- 
parations completed, Herachus was ready to start (a.d. 
622). There is some difference of opinion as to the point 
01 the Persian Empire which he first attacked, and Gibbon 
accuses of inaccuracy those writers, who nevertheless credit 
the Emperor with skill enough to attack his enemy at the 
weakest part. But when we reflect that the Persian armies 
were posted in Syria and on the Euphrates, and had 
pushed into Asia Minor, it seems less credible to believe 
that he landed in Cilicia, where he would have been 
exposed to a concentrated attack, than that he adopted the 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East 205 

more audacious, yet perhaps safer, plan of landing in 
Colchis and attacking their line of communication. In 
Colchis he was close to Huns and Turks, possible allies, 
and certainly enemies of Persia; while the wisdom of 
his tactics was seen in the fact, that a blow delivered 
towards the heart of the Empire immediately recalled the 
Persian armies to its defence. Prom Colchis he marched 
into Atropatene, Albania, and Armenia; and in those 
provinces a series of campaigns was carried on for more 
than three years, in which HeracKus was mostly suc- 
cessful, and pushed eventually as far south even as 
Aspadana (Ispahan), if we may beheve a doubtful 
authority. In any case, the effect was the same — an attack 
on the centre of the Empire at once relieved Asia Minor 
and Syria of the presence of Persian armies. At this 
juncture his enemy, taught by his tactics, delivered a 
counterblow, which nothing but two or three lucky 
accidents prevented from being fatal to the Eastern 
Empire. Chosroes opened negotiations with the Chagan 
of the Avars, inviting him to join in an attack on Con- 
stantinople, and offering him the pillage of the city ii 
the attack were successful. Schaharbarz was to be sent 
with a large Persian force to Chalcedon, and the Avar 
skiffs and canoes, which they used on the Danube, were 
to carry them, if requisite, across the Bosporus (a.d. 626). 
Such a joint attack, in the absence of the Emperor with 
the flower of his army, might well seem hopeless to resist, 
unless he returned at once to create a diversion. But he 
did nothing of the sort. Detaching a portion of his army 
to make for the Euxine and to reinforce the garrison of 
the capital, he marched himself with a small division to 
the shores of the Caspian to invite the alliance of the 
EJiazars, while he left the main body under his brother 
Theodore's command to compel the presence of a large 



2o6 Histoiy of the Roman Empire 

Persian army in AdiaLene for the protection of Ctesiplion. 
These Khazars or Acatzires were by origin Huns, and 
their language similar to the Bulgarian; hut having 
become subject to the Turks they had intermarried, and 
adopted the Turkish customs and dress and name. To 
the world at large they were Turks, and formidable in 
proportion. By the promise of his daughter's hand in 
marriage to their Khan, Heraclius secured the aid of 
40,000 warriors; and gradually forcing the Persians from 
the field into the fortresses of Armenia and Mesopotamia, 
he won a great victory in the plain where, 1,200 years 
before, Mneveh had stood (a.d. 627). This victory 
enriched his army with all the wealth and plunder of the 
many palaces that lay along the Tigris, and opened the 
road to Ctesiphon; while the recovery of 300 Eoman 
standards, and the liberation of numberless captives, 
might avenge the memories of even Crassus (b.c. 53) and 
Valerian (a.d. 260). Heraclius was in no position, 
however, to press his advantage; for his good allies the 
Khazars abandoned him, when they had filled their hands 
with booty. 

Successful Defence of Constantinople. — Mean- 
while Constantinople was hard pressed. The confede- 
rate armies of Persians and Avars had converged on the 
capital from north and south towards the end of June a.d. 
626, the latter encumbered with the canoes (/xovo^Aa) 
which they were bringing to ferry their allies over the 
straits. The first attack was made on the wall on July 
31, and lasted for five days, but all to no purpose. The 
skill and courage of the besieged repelled every assault. 
Schaharbarz, moreover, was unable to co-operate with his 
aUies; for he had no means of crossing the narrow strip 
of water between Chrysopolis and the capital, while the 
Eoman fleet kept vigilant watch and intercepted all 



208 History of the Ro7Jtan Empire 

attempts of the Avar canoes to cross over. A niglit sur- 
prise even in the Golden Horn was foiled with heavy 
loss; and at last the Chagan, unable alike to affect a 
junction with the Persians and to make an impression on 
the city, reluctantly retired, vowing to return and take 
vengeance for his repulse. 

Effects of the War— a.d. 628-641.— But the 
Eomans had now little cause for fear. Theodore had 
gained a brilliant victory in Mesopotamia : and by-and- 
bye there came tidings of the battle of Mneveh ; of the 
restoration of standards and captives, and the yet more 
]3recious prize of the ^'true cross;" of Heraclius' immediate 
return. And the return was one long scene of triumph, 
the whole city flocking across the water to Chrysopolis to 
welcome the victorious Emperor (September 14, 628). 
Indeed, it was no ordinary exploit which this indolent, 
luxurious Emperor had achieved, in combating successfully 
at one and the same time two such powerful foes. He 
saved the Eoman Empke; while the Persian Empire 
never recovered from the blow, and ere long fell before the 
new-born enthusiasm of Mohammedanism (a.d. 636-700). 
Nor did the Avars escape from some disastrous effects of 
their repulse. The central authority became so weakened, 
that both Slaves and Bulgarians asserted their independ- 
ence ; and Heraclius, alive to the opportunity thus offered 
him, not only allied himself to Samo the Frank, the 
leader of the Slavonian revolt, but invited a body of 
Slovenes, who were settled on the northern slopes of the 
Carpathians, and called themselves " mountaineers " (xpw- 
jSarot, Clirobates), to conquer from the Avars, and to 
occupy a part of Dalmatia. They eagerly accepted his 
offer, and conquered the country; and being converted to 
Christianity by the efforts of the then Pope, Honorius, 
became faithful supporters of the Empire. JSTor did he 







Bivingtx)}i s^ 




I).™ .u,-| 



Knm^bK . i«~*.". (irfi"* <* 'fnl^Jy 



Relation to the Barbarians of the East ■ 209 

stop here. The news of the good fortune of the Chrohats 
spreading, a body of Wends from the Elbe, who called 
themselves " Srp " (^epfSXoL, Sorabi), applied to Heraclius 
for the same favour, and were settled by him to the south 
of the Save and Danube, in what ar^ now called Servia 
and Bosnia. These, too, became Christians. This prac- 
tical defence of the line of the Danube against the Avars 
was finished after Heraclius' death (a.d. 641) by the 
settlement of the Bulgarians in the province of Moesia, 
to which they gave their own name. After a.d. 630 the 
Avars figure no more in the annals of the Eastern Empire. 
A decaying and disorganised power, they fell in the ninth 
century before the strong arm of Cbarles the Great. 



ROM. EMP. 



CHAPTER XII. 
MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM— 

A.D. 622-711. 

Mohammedanism — a.d. 622. — The seventh cen- 
tury had seen the Empire saved from ruin by the arms 
and policy of a single Emperor, the Avars effectually 
thrust across the Danube, the Persian Empire shattered. 
It was yet to see a religious revolution, second in im- 
]3ortance only to Christianity, and the effects of which are 
still unexhausted in our own day. In the seventh cen- 
tury there arose in Arabia a religion, which inspired its 
votaries with such zeal, that in 100 years they had con- 
quered and to a great extent converted or destroyed the 
Zoroastrians of Persia, the Brahmans and Buddhists of 
India, the Christians of Africa and Spain. They crossed 
the Pyrenees. They threatened even Eome. In the end 
\hQ.j established their religion in the very heart of Eastern 
Christendom, at Constantinople (a.d. 1453). Why was 
all this 1 How was it, that an obscure country, almost be- 
yond the pale of civilisation — beyond the reach of Greek 
and Persian and Eoman arms — with a frugal, nomadic, 
and probably decreasing population — divided into petty, 
hostile tribes — could send forth almost inexhaustible 
armies, who were inspired with a fanaticism amounting 
to madness, and blindly obeyed a single leader, at once 
general, king, and pontiff? 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 211 

Secondary Causes of Success. — Various secondary 
causes may, no doubt, be assigned for the rapid con- 
quests of the Mohammedan armies. The prestige of 
victory is great -, one conquest is apt to lead to an- 
other : while division and weakness will always end in 
defeat. Persia was in a state of anarchy. The divisions 
of Christianity were as fatal as its moral degeneracy. 
Monasticism, which in one sense was then the salt of 
religion, was in another its bane ; for it robbed religion of 
the practical and masculine virtues, which alone could 
make a successful resistance to such fanaticism possible. 
Rome and her bishop were hardly yet strong enough to 
take the lead in such a struggle j and neither the Empire 
nor the Church of the East could unite men, as Moham- 
medanism united them, in one bond of nationality and 
religious unity. Hence resistance was half-hearted, par- 
tial, and isolated. Nor were the Arabs, like the Vandals 
or Goths, a nation seeking a new home. They were 
armies of men only, who for the most part put other men 
to the sword, who seized the women for their own harems, 
and whose children, at any rate, were Mohammedans. 
Hence the conquered, stripped of wealth and wives, 
continually decreased in numbers, and in ability to 
resist. 

But these reasons are not enough in themselves to 
explain the facts, nor do they at all account for the origin 
and force of that enthusiasm, which made the Arabs so 
irresistible. We shall find both the one and the other (if 
at all) in the conditions of Arab life and history, aud in 
the character of Mohammed himself. 

Characteristics of Arabia. — The East, it is said, 
never changes : and this is specially true of Arabia. An 
Eastern population, isolated from all the world, and itself 
split up and divided into small tribes by force of circum- 



212 History of the Roman Empire 

stances, will hardly change at all from generation to 
generation. Arabia of to-day is in all essentials the 
counterpart of the Arabia of Mohammed. 

Briefly described, the country consists of a central 
table-land, surrounded by a. desert ring of sand to the 
south, west, and east, and of stones to the north, its 
entire surface being about four times as large as France, 
and measuring 1,500 miles in length, by 800 in breadth. 
Outside the desert again, and fringing the coast, runs a 
strip of mountain land, varying in height, breadth, and 
fertility. The area of country, admitting of cultivation, 
is estimated at two-thirds ; the remaining third being a 
desert (or ocean) of loose reddish sand, shifting with 
every capricious breeze that blows, and not seldom piled up 
in huge ridges or waves, which will at times average 200 
feet in height, and to cross which involves toil, suffering, 
and often death. The central plateau consists of a series 
of mountains and mountain slopes of granite and limestone, 
intersected by sand passes which effectually separate tribe 
from tribe. In short, the conditions of life in Arabia are 
such as to preclude (unless under exceptional circum- 
stances) movement and political activity. 

Characteristics of Tribes. — The population of this 
vast country was probably not more uniform in the 
seventh century than it is now. History, language, and 
character alike testify to as marked a difference between 
the nomad and the settled population, as between the 
inhabitants of north and south. It is a common error to 
confound Arabs with Eedouins, and to suppose that all 
Arabs are nomads. As a matter of fact, the Bedouins or 
nomad Arabs bear but a small proportion to the settled 
tribes, forming j)erhaps a fourth of the whole population, 
and present a startling contrast in character to the cognate 
clans of Central and Eastern Arabia. The latter are pro- 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 213 

iiounced by all travellers to be one of the noblest and 
most gifted races of the world; Carlyle calls them the 
"Italians" of the East: the former, identical in blood 
and tongue, but ignorant, licentious, and savage, are like 
ill-educated children. They have little or no religion, 
little or no morality, none of the courtesy of the " noble 
savage." Nor is the difference • less marked between the 
settled inhabitants of JS'orthern and Southern Arabia — 
these inclined to be volatile, ostentatious, and unstable ; 
those serious, reticent, stedfast, and austere. Indeed, 
100 years before the era of Mohammed, there was fierce 
war between the clans of the centre and the south (a.d. 
500-520), in which the former established a temporary 
independence, only to succumb afterwards to the new 
outbursts of religious enthusiasm from Mecca and Medina. 
The general conclusion arrived at from these and similar 
considerations is, that in Arabia, as in Europe, there were 
two or three waves of population, whose course was from 
north to south. As Kelts in Europe were encroached 
upon by Teutons, so in Arabia the original Kahtanic 
stock was pushed forward by the later IshmaeKtic race, 
and even across the Eed Sea into Abyssinia and Eastern 
Africa. The latter traced their descent to Ishmael, and 
so to Abraham. The former to Kahtan (in Hebrew, 
Joktan), fourth in descent from Shem. IsTow, whatever 
may be the value of the genealogies of Genesis, or of 
popular tradition in such a case, it is certain that the 
Arabs acknowledge Kahtan as a founder of their race, 
while at the southern end of the central Highlands a cer- 
tain marked variation begins from the purest Arabic, 
which increases to the east and south, as well as a marked 
variation of customs and character. It is fair to infer a 
difference of origin in populations whose language and 
character thus differ. 



2 14 History of the Roman Empire 

Political and Religious Confasion — a.d. 600. — 
At tlie beginning of the seventh, century Arabia was in a 
state of singular confusion, both political and religious. 
In the North the Byzantine Empire held an undefined 
and dubious sway, while ever and anon its outposts reached 
almost to Medina. The extreme eastern and southern 
clans were ruled by sovereigns of their own, but in sub- 
jection to the Persian Empire; lastly, there was a powerful 
and independent confederacy of clans in the central High- 
lands, ruled by a certain Moseylemah. In the interstices 
(so to speak) of these separate powers was a roving element 
of predatory Bedouins; while scattered about the Penin- 
sula, but especially in the west, were a few small com- 
munities of Jews, who were active in making proselytes. 
But there were Christian refugees still more active — 
refugees from the oppressive orthodoxy of the Empire, 
who fought their battles over again in the freer atmosphere 
of Arabia, and who also made converts. Indeed, Arab 
literature and traditions alike concur in showing that 
Christianity was widely spread through ]N"orthern Arabia 
long before Mohammedanism arose. The bulk of the 
population, however, was doubtless pagan — not necessarily 
idolatrous, for the Sabeeans (like the Magians, who fled 
from Persia before the sword of the Greeks) worshipped 
the heavenly bodies as symbols of the source of light, 
and abstained from the use of images; while, unlike the 
Magians, they recognised no priestly caste. The purest 
Sabseans were to be found in the east of Arabia; in the 
centre and south-west the religion was less refined and 
more idolatrous. But whether it were Jew or Christian, 
Magian, Sabsean, or idolater, all Arabians agreed in re- 
verencing the sacred stone of Mecca, the Caaba — a holy 
place associated by tradition with the names of Abraham, 
Seth, and Adam. And the temple of the Caaba was the 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 215 

centre of the commerce as well as of tlie religion of Arabia; 
the pilgrims of every creed, the merchants of every nation 
met in the holy place at Mecca. It was the one bond of 
union between all Arabians. And of this temple, with its 
sacred stone and well, the tribe of Koreish, Mohammed's 
tribe, were guardians. 

Primary Causes of Success. — If we now reflect 
for a moment on the general bearing of what has been 
said thus far — the comparative isolation, divergence, 
and disunion of the several Arabian tribes — and then 
compare it with the spectacle presented by the same 
tribes 100, or 50, or even 30 years later, the problem 
to be solved will take a narrower and simpler form. 
By A.D. 650 the Arabs were masters of Persia, Syria, 
and Egypt. By the beginning of the eighth century they 
had advanced to the Pillars of Hercules, and had twice 
besieged Constantinople. What was the source of this 
marvellous energy? If the state of Arabia itself was 
rather adverse than favourable to such an outburst, and 
the condition of the conquered countries can only be cited 
as a secondary and concurrent cause, to what can we 
attribute it but the personal character and ascendency of 
Mohammed himself in the first instance; and, secondly, 
to the religious system which he bequeathed to his 
followers ? We have, in short, to weigh the meaning of 
the life and ideas of a man who succeeded, like Moses, in 
welding together a disunited people, and, like Buddha 
(about 600 B.C.), in instituting a new religion for millions 
of his fellow-men. 

Mohammed's Early Years. — Mohammed was born 
in A.D. 569 or a.d. 570, of the family of Hashem, of the 
tribe of Koreish. His father and mother both dying 
while he was a child, he was taken charge of first by his 
grandfather, and then by his uncle, Abu Thaleb, a just 



2i6 History of the Roman Einpire 

and kind man. This uncle lie accompanied in various 
commercial journeys, especially in a.d. 584 to Syria. It 
was liis first introduction to the great world, and although 
the tradition may not be false, which speaks of his being 
instructed in Christian doctrines by the N'estorian monk 
Sergius at Bosra, it would seem probable that other in- 
fluences affected him far more deeply. The frequent 
references; for instance, to " ships " in the Koran seem to 
point to visits to Syrian sea-ports, and to deep impressions 
received there. For Mohammed was known as thoughtful 
and observant from his earliest years; his friends called 
him " Al Amin," the Faithful. His was a reticent, 
serious, truthful character; and withal he was pleasant to 
look upon, with a high broad forehead and oval face, an 
aquiline nose, keen black eyes, and black and flowing hair 
and beard. He had a ruddy complexion. Though his 
manner was ordinarily calm and serious, yet he could 
laugh genially, and the sweetness of his smile was noted; 
while if roused to anger he showed the family pecu- 
liarity of a curious swelling of the veins on the brow. 
Though little educated (for it is probable that he could 
never write), his intellectual powers were far above 
the common. He had a quick apprehension, keen 
insight, and vivid imagination; a mind to be deeply 
impressed by the mingled monotony and "intensity" 
(so to say) of the physical life around him, the intense 
sunlight, the brilliant starlight, the interminable desert. 
Even the man's personal tricks and habits help us 
to realise him as he was ; his mode of wearing the 
turban with one end hanging down between his shoulders, 
because (he said) the angels wore it so ; his scrupulous 
cleanliness ; his delight in perfumes ; his trick of per- 
petually smoothing his hair when in the presence of 
women. 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 217 

Mohammed " called" to be the Prophet of 
God. — After serving a rich widow of Mecca, Kadijah by 
name, as steward, she, grateful for faithful services, 
married him, and they lived happily together for twenty- 
five years. She was forty, and had already been twice 
married; Mohammed was only twenty-eight. But his 
marriage with Kadijah made him one of the most wealthy, 
as he was aheady from force of character one of the most 
influential men in Mecca. This wealth gave him a respite 
also from the necessities of business, and leisure for that 
reflection in which he loved to indulge. The first twelve 
years of his married life were the seed time of the harvest 
to come. At the age of forty the crisis came in his life. 
Mohammed had been used, like other Arabians, to pass 
the holy month of Eamadhan in solitude in the caves of 
Mount Hira, ten miles north of Mecca. And in a.d. 609, 
while thus in seclusion, a vision appeared to him (he said) 
from Heaven in the person of the angel Gabriel. He had 
been fasting, watching, and praying. In the dead of 
night he heard a voice, amid an intolerable flood of hght, 
calling to him and bidding him to read what was written 
on a scroll held in the angel's hand. Enabled by super- 
natural power to do what before was impossible to him, 
he read in the scroll the law of God as afterwards revealed 
in the Koran; while the angel solemnly announced to 
him that he was to be the "Prophet of God." The 
fervent behef of Kadijah, to whom he imparted this 
vision, and the adhesion of her cousin Warkeh, confirmed 
the wavering mind of Mohammed. But his enemies, 
and even some of his earlier followers, asserted that the 
vision was an epileptic fit, to which attacks he was 
subject; and one of his biographers^ believes "not that 
the apparition of Gabriel was alleged to conceal his 

^ Dr Weil — cf. Milman Lat. Christianity, book iv. cap. i. 



2 1 8 History of the Roman Empire 

malady, but that the malady itself was the cause of his 
belief in these apparitions." It may be so. In the 
absence of definite details, however, one or two points 
are clear. Mohammed was no impostor. Impostors do 
not generally begin imposture in the decline of life, or 
needlessly face personal privations and dangers, or frame 
religions for half a world. Mohammed believed heartily 
in his own " call " to be a reformer. As a theory to 
explain undisputed facts, it seems not impossible that, 
like Elijah in Israel, or Paul at Athens, his soul was 
stirred within him by what he saw around. Amidst the 
fanaticism of the Jew, the hair-splitting word-battles of 
the Christians, the nature worship of the Sabseans, the 
idolatry of the Caaba with its 360 images, the root of 
the matter seemed lost — the one God in and over all. 
It was no doubt the glory of Mohammedanism (and as 
we shall see presently its fatal Shibboleth) to insist with 
even wearisome iteration on the unity of God. That is 
the doctrine on which- Mohammedanism rests, and by 
virtue of which Mohammed gave to his countrymen 
unity and a higher life. And to the Arabs Moham- 
medanism was " as a birth from darkness to light," and 
the effect which it produced in them comparable only to 
the effect of Puritanism on the soldiers of Cromwell. 
There was, indeed, little that was new or strange to the 
world in the creed, beyond the assertion of the "pro- 
phetic " mission of its founder ; what was new was the 
ardour with which it was believed and propagated, and 
the marvellous results which followed. 

Ill Success of Mohammed. — At first, however, 
Mohammed met with little success. Kadijah his wife, 
Seid his slave, Ali his cousin, were the first converts. In 
three years he had only gained tlfirteen followers; and 
the pretensions of an unlettered middle-aged man, backed 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 219 

only by a woman and a lad of sixteen, to change a 
nation's life and beliefs, were greeted with, ridicule. But 
the Prophet persevered. As little by little his eloquence 
and earnestness gained adherents, so did the bitter hostility 
of unbehevers, and especially of the Koreish, increase. A 
price was set on his head. He had to face personal insult, 
to disguise himself, to take refuge for three years in a castle 
of his uncle's. At last that uncle's death left him without 
protectors. His life was in danger from unscrupulous 
enemies. Success at Mecca seemed impossible. 

The Hegira or Plight of Mohammed to Medina 
— A.D. 622. — He fled (a.d. 622), and from this darkest 
hour of the Prophet's life Mohammedanism dates its 
birth. He had already gained a handful of converts at 
Yathreb, some 200 miles distant, a commercial rival of 
Mecca, where there was no local hierarchy, and but little 
local idolatry; and to Yathreb (henceforth called "Medina- 
al-Nabi," the city of the Prophet) the exiled Prophet fled. 
But he had much ado to escape. His murder was deter- 
mined on, but the plot was betrayed to him. His cousin 
Ali dressed in his robe and lay on his couch, while 
Mohammed and Abu Bekr stole from Mecca by starlight, 
and hid in a cave for three days, being fed by the latter's 
daughter. Pinally, they reached Medina in safety, and 
received welcome and protection. And here the believers 
rapidly increased in numbers : fugitives fled from Mecca 
before the persecution of the Koreish, converts were made 
in Medina, proselytes came in from the desert nomads. 
Mohammed, in fact, was at the head of a considerable 
body of men. 

First Proclamation of War against Infidels. — 
At this point it is that we trace the first hint of an 
appeal to the sword. Par too much has been made of 
this. If we consider the matter, first of all, how natural 



220 History of the Roman Empire 

it was that such an idea should present itself to a man 
born and bred in the midst of differences, and hostilities 
such as have been described ! And, next, we must re- 
member that the sacredness of toleration is a discovery 
of quite recent date, and even yet of small estimation. 
Christianity is not less, but all the more divine, because 
on the whole it has forsworn the sword. Moham- 
medanism betrays its human origin in taking as a prin- 
ciple the use of persecution. Nor has Christianity been 
always true to itself. Charles' Franks and Cromwell's 
Puritans acted on the belief of Mohammed's Arabs, that 
their own enemies were the enemies of God. Mohanuned, 
indeed, did not shrink from avowing Ms position. " I," 
he said, "the last of the prophets, am sent with the 
sword. Let those who promulgate my faith enter into 
no discussion, but slay all who refuse obedience." 

Fall of Mecca— A.D. 630.— There followed battles 
with the Jews, who refused Mohammed's overtures; 
battles with the infidels of Mecca, until in a.d. 630, 
partly by negotiations, partly by surprise, the city fell 
into his hands; the idols of the Caaba vv^ere destroyed; 
Mecca became the capital of Islam, the holy city, the 
centre of pilgrimages. And this was not all. As lord of 
Mecca, Mohammed gradually gained such influence in 
more distant parts of Arabia, that the hereditary feuds 
ceased ; Arabia assumed the position of a nation among 
other nations, and began to have a policy. It was only 
natural that the views of the Prophet should expand with 
his power; that the political and religious unity of Arabia, 
of the East, of the world, should dawn by degrees on 
Mohammed's mind. Even the union of Arabia was a 
somewhat slow process, and not completed till after the 
Prophet's death. The Jews were converted or banished. 
Christians were tolerated at first, as being enemies of the 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 221 

Jews and believers in a true prophet, Christ j hut it was 
not for long. Christians were said or believed to worship 
three gods, and punished as heretics. " Say not there are 
three Gods," says the Koran, "God is but one God. Far 
be it from Him that He should have a son." Central 
Arabia had to be conquered by slow and bloody fighting, 
and yielded only to the energy of Khalid, " the sword of 
God." Eastern Arabia gave a speedier but more transient 
allegiance, while with the Bedouins of the desert even 
Mohammed could scarcely do anything. Still the unity 
of Arabia for the time was so far secured by the energy 
of Mohammed and the first Caliphs (or successors), that an 
Arab army could meet E,oman soldiers on the field of 
Muta (a.d. 630), and Arab ambassadors were sent to the 
Emperor Heraclius and the Persian king. The feeling of 
strength arising from this unity is well exemplified in a 
conversation between the ambassador of Omar and the 
Persian Yezdegerd. " Who are you," said the Persian, 
"to attack an empire? of all nations of the world the 
poorest, most disunited, most ignorant ?" " What you 
have said," replied the ambassador, " of our poverty, divi- 
sions, and barbarism, was true indeed. But now we are 
a new people. God has raised among us a man. His true 
Prophet ; and Islam, His religion, has enlightened our 
minds, extinguished our hatreds, and made us a society 
of brothers." Allowing for the logic of the sword, this 
reply precisely describes the early effects of Mohammed- 
anism in Arabia. 

Death of Mohammed — a.d. 632. — Mohammed did 
not live long enough to see even the union of Arabia. 
He had lived a hard life ; and the strength of his constitu- 
tion had been impaired by poison administered to him 
some years before by a Jewish captive, and when, in a.d. 
631, his only son Ibrahim died, it was a mortal blow to. 



222 History of the Roman Empire 

himself. One more solemn pilgrimage from Medina to 
Mecca lie performed, at the head (it was said) of more 
than 50,000 pilgrims; but his days were numbered. A 
fever set in; and after great suffering he died (June 8, 
632), and was buried in Medina. So died a great man, 
in many respects a good man, one of those whom power 
and prosperity corrupt, but not wholly. He never lost 
his simplicity of character, his genuine piety, his un- 
selfishness, difficult as it may be to reconcile such traits 
with some points of his creed and character. Prayer was 
his constant practice: " trast in God" his constant motto. 
When his favourite wife, Ayesha, once asked him,, 
whether none entered paradise but through God's mercy, 
" jS'one, none, none," he answered, with triple iteration. 
" But you, Prophet, will not you enter except through 
His compassion % " Then Mohammed placed his hand on 
his head and replied thrice, with much solemnity, 
" iJ^Teither shall I enter paradise, unless God cover me 
with His mercy." Whatever were the faults and errors 
of this Arab prophet he was a sincere man, whose 
reliofion made both him and his followers better men. 

The Doctrines of Mohaminedanisin. — To speak 
of Mohammed apart from Mohammedanism, would leave 
the problem before us only half solved. It was the 
doctrine and practice of Islam,^ which inspired the con- 
quering armies of Saracens, and which, in our own day, 
commands the allegiance of 115,000,000 of human beings. 

The Unity of God.—" The faith of Islam (as Gibbon 
says) is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary 
fiction," that there is only one God, and that Mohammed 
is the apostle of God. The unity of God was a truth of 

2 "Islam " is tlie infinitive mood, " Moslim " tlie participle of the 
causative verb, derived from "salm" = "peace," Islam = to make 
peace. 



Mohammed and MoJiammedanism 223 

wliicli the world had too much lost sight, not only in 
Mohammed's misconceptions, but in reality. The " three 
gods " of the Koran are doubtless a misunderstanding of 
the Christian Trinity; but the worship of relics, images, 
and saints certainly obscures true ideas of God. In the 
Mohammedan profession of faith the unity of God is 
asserted by raising the forefinger, and exclaiming, " I^a 
Ilah ilia Allah," "there is no god but God." On the 
surface these words look like a truism, but they are not. 
They are the negation of any deity, save one: they are 
that, and much more. They not only deny all plurality, 
whether of person or nature, in God, but they imply that 
this Supreme Being is the only agent or force in the 
universe, all else (men included) being only instruments, 
by and through which He works, '' as He wills " (a 
frequent expression in the Koran), communicating nothing 
to them, receiving nothing from them. Allah is a 
"jealous God," an omnipotent autocrat, ruling the 
universe "as He wills." Woe to him who disobeys! 
Below Him and at His feet lies all creation, from angels 
to insects, creatures of His breath, all equal in His 
sight, all created alike only for His will. This is the 
meaning of the words, stated barely. What the sys- 
tem which is based on such a belief results in, may be 
seen in the government of the Central Arabia of to-day, 
where the " reformed Mohammedanism " of the Wahha- 
bees is in full possession.^ The doctrine inevitably ex- 
cludes all relations between man and God save those 
of slavish obedience, excludes therefore all idea of pro- 
gress and development. Islam is sterile and stationary; 
and its sacred book, like a " dead man's hand," is stiff and 
motionless. " The worshipper " (says an Arab proverb) 
" models himself on what he worships;" and life in Eiad, 

3 See Palgrave's Arabia, chapters viii. and ix. 



224 History of the Roman Empire 

the capital of Central Arabia, and headquarters of Wah- 
habeeism, is marked by monotonous and chilling reserve 
on the surface, and beneath by the worst features of re- 
ligious despotism, jealousy, espionage, and repression. 

Angels and Genii. — Mohammedanism includes belief 
not only in God, but in angels and genii — the former of 
which are exempt from, while the latter are subject to the 
frailties of humanity, and both alike created out of fire. 

The Koran. — The third article of faith is belief in the 
Koran (Al-Koran — the Book) as divinely revealed through 
the Prophet. It was certainly compiled after Moham- 
med's death, during the Caliphate of Abu Bekr; yet its 
general integrity is universally acknowledged. It is the 
Mohammedan code of civil as well as religious law. 
Mohammedans swear by it, take omens from it, study it. 
In some mosques it is read through daily. 

The Creed. — Mohammedans believe further in 
200,000 prophets, of whom six are pre-eminent — Adam, 
JSToah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed; in the 
resurrection and final judgment; in a heaven and hell, 
whose joys and horrors are detailed with singular minute- 
ness; last, and not least, in predestination, so that every 
event has been predetermined from all eternity, and 
every man's destiny and hour of death have been irrevoc- 
ably fixed, a doctrine as potent on the battle-field as it is 
fatal in the time of peace. 

Practical Religion. — There are four articles of 
religious practice — prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage. 
Pive times a day is prayer enjoined with preliminary 
ablution, in which the words, posture, and gestures are 
carefuUy prescribed, while the eyes are to be turned 
towards Mecca. Priday is the sacred day of rest, with a 
sermon in the mosque. Alms must be given by every 
good Mohammedan to the extent of at least one-tenth of 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 225 

his income. Fasting is practised for thirty days in each 
year during the month of Ramadhan, implying abstinence 
between sunrise and sunset from meat and drink, baths, 
and all bodily gratifications. As to pilgrimage, every 
believer is bound to visit Mecca once in his life, either 
personally or by proxy. 

Was Mohamme danism Original ? — A moment's 
reflection on the beliefs and practice of Mohammedanism 
shows that no religion was less original. Sabseism, Ma- 
gianism, Judaism, Christianity — Mohammed borrowed 
from all impartially; while in the four religious ''prac- 
tices " there was nothing new. The grand central idea of 
Islam was common to it with Judaism, and a protest 
against Oriental idolatry on the one hand, and Trinitarian 
Christianity on the other. Its angels were Biblical; its 
genii Eastern. Even its legends may be traced to the 
Talmud, or the Apocryphal Gospels. The one startling 
novelty in the creed of Islam was the divine mission of 
Mohammed himself. " It was this " (says Dean Milman), 
" forced as a divine revelation into the belief of so large 
a part of mankind, which was the power of Islam — the 
principle of its unity, its fanaticism, its propagation, its 
victories, empire, and duration." To the question, whether 
Mohammed deceived himself prior to deceiving others, or 
was moved by indignation at his people's idolatry, or was 
filled with a lofty political ambition, or was a single- 
minded reformer, a preacher of righteousness; or whether 
rather his character was not a mixed one, made up of 
these and other conflicting elements — we may best an- 
swer in the favourite phrase of Islam, " God knows." 
Certainly in one point which has been laid to the charge 
of the prophet, his sanction of polygamy and of slavery, 
it is well to remember that it had been the established 
usage of Arabia, and that Mohammed did not enlarge 



226 History of the Roman Empire 

but restricted tlie privilege. It is well to remember that 
men who have been born and bred amid particular cus- 
toms, whether polygamy, or slavery, or suttee, or human 
sacrifice, are not easily convinced of the wrong of them; 
and that Mohammed's own indulgence in polygamy may 
be quite as justly ascribed to his anxiety for male issue to 
succeed him as to licentiousness. In short, if we judge 
Mohammed by the standard of the nineteenth "Christian 
century, we shall misjudge him. Compare him with the 
men of his own day and country — ascribe to him what 
ambition, fanaticism, violence, inconsistency we will — 
there will yet remain enough of grand and good to rank 
him among the genuine " heroes " of the world's history. 
Mohammedan Conquests — a.d. 632-711. — Mo- 
hammed died on June 8th, 632. The disunion, which 
would have destroyed his empire almost before its founda- 
tion, was happily deferred for a while, jSTot until three 
caliphs — Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman — had cemented 
union by foreign conquest in Syria, Persia, and Egypt, 
did the struggle for the caliphate begin between Ali and 
Moawija. In seven years from the prophet's death Syria 
was Mohammedan (a.d. 632-9), to remain so for fully 500 
years. The Christian opposition was of the feeblest, for 
Christian virtues in the East were passive rather than 
active, and a religious war was as yet undreamt of; so far 
Islam had a distinct advantage. Roman armies were 
defeated in two pitched battles. Damascus, Emessa, 
Baalbec, and even Jerusalem were besieged and taken ; 
its inhabitants were reduced to a subject caste, and the 
Mosque of Omar was built on the site of the Temple. By 
the middle of tke century the Sassanian dynasty had fallen, 
and the Persian Empire as far as the Oxus was Moham- 
medan — a success to be pushed before the end of the 
century to the very confines of India. Meanwhile, in the 



Mohammed and Mohammedanism 227 

opposite direction, Egypt also had succumbed to the arms 
of Amrou (a.d. 639-641), and the conquest of Africa was 
gradually though less rapidly effected (a.d. 647-698). 
The beginning of the eighth century saw the Moham- 
medans masters of a large part of Spain, invited there 
(a dubious tradition says) by the Christian Count Juhan 
to avenge the wrongs inflicted on his daughter by Eoderic, 
the Gothic king (a.d. 711). Thus, in less than a century 
from the Prophet's secret flight to Medina, not only was 
the Caliph sovereign, but the religion of Mohammed was 
dominant from the Indus to the Atlantic, in Persia, 
Arabia, Syria, Egypt, J^orthern Africa, and part of Spain. 
Christianity did not indeed die out; but Christian divi- 
sions and bickerings paved the way for the triumph of 
Islam, and not a few Christians found refuge from their 
perplexities in the simple creed of the divine unity, 
even at the cost of acknowledging Mohammed; while 
polygamy at the outset had a constant tendency to 
increase the relative numbers of the Mohammedan popu- 
lation at the expense of the Christians. JS'or was Mo- 
hammedanism itself unaffected by the philosophy, the 
religion, the culture of the Asiatic, Greek, and Eoman 
worlds with which it clashed. Architecture, poetry, 
science, philosophy, transformed Islam into something 
very different from the stern and narrow creed of Moham- 
med; untU in the middle of the last century a learned 
enthusiast of Central Arabia, named Wahhab, undertook 
the self-imposed task of restoring Islam to its true and 
original type — a task which has met (if we may believe 
travellers) with but limited success. 



CHAPTER XI 11. 
THE POPES AND THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY— 

A.D. 540-740. 

Gregory the G-reat. — The reconquest of Italy to tlie 
Eastern Empire by Belisarius and N'arses (a.d. 536-552) 
was only tlie prelude to its final revolt. The causes of 
that revolt were as patent, as its effects were deep and 
lasting; and it is inseparably connected with the name of 
Gregory the Great. Amidst the confusion and panic 
consequent on the feebleness of the Imperial rule in Italy 
and the ferocity of the Lombards, it was Gregory who 
became "the father of the mediaeval Papacy," and by 
his energy, resolution, and wisdom resuscitated a power 
" on which (humanly speaking) hung the life and death 
of Christianity " — a power capable of resisting Byzantine 
encroachments, of overawing barbarous Franks, of leading 
the struggle against Mohammedanism, of reconstituting 
(it might be hoped) the hberty and independence of 
Italy. Unhappdy, that is the last thing of which the 
Papacy has ever dreamed. 

State of Italy after its Conquest — a.d. 540-590. — 
The reconquest of Italy by the Eastern Empire was to a 
great extent the work of the Cathohc clergy, who disliked 
the foreign Goths and hated their Arianism; but it 
brought little good to Italy. The country was exhausted 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 229 

by the drain of money, men, and food during a long war. 
In Picenum alone 50,000 labourers are said to have died 
of hunger, and a yet larger number in the south. Acorns 
became a common article of food. The reviving pros- 
perity which had resulted from Theodoric's policy and 
the gradual fusion of Goths and Itahans was rudely 
extinguished. A just and vigorous rule was supplanted 
by feebleness and reckless tyranny. The "Exarch" at 
Eavenna, as the Imperial governor was styled, was 
expected to need but little support. The less he asked 
for, and the more he sent home, the better was the home 
government pleased. Of "poHcy," strictly speaking, 
there was none beyond that of clinging convulsively to 
the province and its revenues. But of all Italians per- 
haps the Bishop of Eome suffered the deepest indignity. 
At Eome now, as for years at Constantinople, the highest 
ecclesiastical honour became the sport of female intrigues. 
Pope Sylverius was degraded (a.d. 537), banished, per- 
haps murdered. Yigilius was appointed by Belisarius at 
the nomination of Theodora (a.d. 544)j Pelagius simi- 
larly (a.d. 554) by Justinian. "The period" (says Mil- 
man) "between the accession of John III. and that of 
Gregory I. (a.d. 560-590) is the most barren and obscure 
in the annals of the Papacy." And meanwhile the 
Lombards were already in the north of Italy, ready to 
profit by all this weakness and dissension. 

The Lombards. — The Lombards, who in the days of 
Augustus and Trajan had been settled between the Oder 
and the Elbe, had been invited by Justinian from the 
centre of Europe to occupy Pannonia, and to act as a 
check upon the Gepidse. Eor thirty years they had sus- 
tained an unequal contest. Its conclusion was a veritable 
tragedy. Alboin, the Lombard king, had deeply insulted 
Eosamond, the daughter of Cunimund, King of the 



230 History of the Roman Empire 

GepidaB. War broke out, and the Lombards were de- 
feated. Stung with vexation, Alboin invited the Avars, 
his terrible neighbours, to help him and take the land of 
his enemies, promising them in addition a moiety of the 
spoils and captives. They gladly acquiesced, and the 
nation of the Gepidse was practically destroyed (a.d. 566). 
Thus the valleys of the Save and Drave fell into Avar 
hands; while the Lombards, not unwilling perhaps to 
escape from the presence of friends so powerful, were 
soon creeping over the Alps, threatening North Italy, and 
ready to accept any alliance which might offer. The 
fame of Alboin attracted numerous followers, — Gepidae, 
Eulgarians, Bavarians, Saxons; and an unexpected ally 
presently appeared upon the scene. J^arses had been 
Exarch for fifteen years, and had stained the virtues of 
an otherwise good administration by avarice and exactions. 
The groans of the province reached the ears of Justin, 
and Longinus was sent to supersede Parses. The latter, 
indignant, withdrew to Naples; and if he did not invite 
him, at least he gave Alboin clearly to understand that 
the kingdom of Italy was within his grasp. 

Lombard Conquest of Italy — a.d. 567. — The 
whole country, indeed, from the Alps to Eome fell into 
his hands almost without a blow. One city alone, which 
the Goths had fortified, withstood the Lombards for 
three years ; and Pavia, when taken, became the Lombard 
capital. And very terrible (if we may believe Italian 
witnesses) was this new irruption of barbarians, who 
burned churches, destroyed cities and castles, farms and 
monasteries, and left the land a desert. To many, even 
to Gregory himself, it seemed a sign of the approaching 
judgment day. In the legends of the time, deaUng with 
the virtues of bishops and monks, it is always a Lombard 
who persecutes; and (as was natural) the general terror 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 231 

passed gradually into a rooted detestation, of whicli sub- 
sequent Popes wisely availed themselves. As regards the 
Lombards themselves, it is useless to dwell on the con- 
fusion which followed the murder of Alboin in a.d. 573, 
or to write in succession the names of kings who for 200 
years were masters of a great part of Italy, and not more 
than one or two of whom were of any note (a.d. 573- 
774). There are two things, however, which it vtdll be 
well to notice briefly in passing, — foreshadowings of 
customs which were destined to exercise a deep and last- 
ing influence on mediaeval Europe. In the Lombard laws, 
as in those of other Teutons, we begin to observe the 
marked diff'erence made between the crimes of nobles and 
of inferior classes — a difference estimated by a different 
mulct according to the social rank of the injured person 
(Wehrgeld). And not only do we find this practically 
" feudal" idea existing among Ostrogoths and Lombards, 
but an actual feudal custom, the very basis of feudalism 
itself, in force among the Lombards. In the reign of 
Autharis (a.d. 584-590) the various "dukes" (duces) of 
Italy engaged to follow him to war, and to furnish troops, 
as the price of their duchies being made independent and 
hereditary (subject to forfeiture for felony), and revertible 
to the Crown only if there were no male heir. 

Territorial Limits of the Exarchate. — For 200 
years Italy was unequally divided between the Lombards 
and the Exarchate of Eavenna. The limits of the latter 
it is most important to remember, as it afterwards became 
in part the " patrimony of St. Peter." It comprised the 
modern Eomagna, the valleys of Eerrara and Commacchio, 
and the district lying between Eimini and Ancona, the 
Adriatic and the Apennines. There were also three sub- 
ordinate provinces of Venice, Eome, and Naples; and the 
outlying districts of Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. 



232 History of the Roman Empire 

All else of Italy was Lombard. The Pope meanwhile 
held the anomalous position of being within the exarchate 
and subject to the Emperor, while semi-independent and 
with an undefined jurisdiction. It was clear that the 
relations between the Papacy and Italy on the one hand, 
and the Eastern Empire on the other, were open to 
revision, and would be revised as soon as a man of 
decision and judgment was Pope. Such a man appeared 
in Gregory the Great. 

G-regory I. — Gregory was the son of Gordian and 
Sylvia, born about a.d. 540. He united every qualifica- 
tion that could gain the respect of Eomans. He was the 
descendant of senators and ecclesiastics, and his family 
was wealthy. But the wealth no sooner came into his 
own hands than he devoted it to religious uses, — in alms, 
and in building and endowing monasteries; one of which, 
St. Andrew's, on the Coelian Hill, he entered as a monk, 
throwing to the winds his dignity as " Prsetor," and his 
worldly prospects. It was 250 years since the great 
Athanasius had introduced to the West the ascetic monas- 
ticism of the East — scarce 100 years since its first great 
revival by St. Benedict; but there was not now a single 
country of the West in which monasteries were not plen- 
tiful. And Western monasticism was different from 
Eastern. It was practical, missionary, aggressive. If a 
man was haunted with a sense of sin or of his own weak- 
ness, or of the evil of the world, he retired into a monas- 
tery; but it was to perform regular duties, to observe an 
austere ritual, to maintain severe toil. The three great 
virtues of the Benedictine rule were silence, humility, and 
obedience, — poverty had not yet become a necessity; the 
tliree occupations of life were worship, reading, and 
manual labour. Nor was this all. A monastery in the 
West became a centre and an example to all its neigh- 



TJie Popes and the Lombards in Italy 233 

bonrlioocl of contentment and industry, a place of refuge 
for the timid and feeble, a support to the poor and old, a 
means of e\^angelisation to all. Whatever of poetry was 
yet left in human life amid the misery and ferocities of 
the time, gathered round the men and women who flocked 
into monasteries, and was (so to say) precipitated in the 
shape of miracle and legend. Gratitude and admiration 
passed into something not unlike worship. Angels and 
demons were at every corner. Miracles abounded. Of 
course a man like Gregory, thoroughly a type of his own 
age in all except that resolute energy which placed him 
on a level with the great of all ages, was ascetic from con- 
viction, — equally, of course, his self-devotion and boundless 
charity became the marvel of his contemporaries, the subject 
of miracles. They show at Rome a marble table at which 
he fed daily twelve beggars, among whom on one occasion 
appeared unbidden a thirteenth, — an angel unawares. Or 
again, when Eome was devastated by pestilence, and 
Gregory, with many another good man, was instant with 
alms and prayers, and in his efforts to alleviate the evil, 
a legend tells how at the head of a procession, chanting 
a solemn litany, he was approaching the mausoleum of 
Hadrian, and saw the angel of death sheath his sword as 
the procession drew near. Or again, his charity was once 
tried by an angel in sailor's guise, whose repeated visits 
drained Gregory's small store, till he had nothing left but 
a silver cup used by his mother. He gave it, and the 
angel at once revealed himself. Bat these stories, though 
characteristic, are illustrations rather than instances. In 
his love for children we tread on firmer ground; while his 
tenderness for slaves, and his noble efforts to soften their 
hard lot, were no less significant. 

Interview of G-regory with English Slaves. — 
Both traits of his character are well seen in the fine story 



234 History of the Roman Empire 

{traditione majorum) told of hini by Bseda:^ — " One day" 
(says the monk) " Gregory went out with the crowd to the 
Foriim to see the wares of merchants just arrived; and 
amongst them saw some fair-skinned lads for sale, with 
beautiful faces and noble heads of hair, presumably there- 
fore of noble birth. He asked from what land they 
came. ' From Britain,' was the answer. He asked again, 
'Were they Christians or pagans?' 'Pagans,' they said. 
Then heaving a deep sigh, ' Alas ! ' he cried, ' that the 
prince of darkness should possess youths of so bright a 
face, that so graceful a presence should conceal a heart 
devoid of grace within!' When told that they were 
Angli (English), 'Well said,' he rejoined, with a play 
upon the word, 'for they have angelic faces, and such 
ought to be co-heirs of angels in heaven. And what is 
the name of the province whence they cornel' 'They 
are Deiri,' was the answer ; that is, they were from the 
' Dearne-rice,' the land between Tyne and Humber. 
' Well called Deiri,' replied Gregory, ' for they have been 
snatched from wrath (de ird erufi) and called to mercy. 
And what is their king's name?' 'Aelli,' they said. 
'Alleluia,' he cried; 'the praise of God their Creator 
must be sung in those parts.' " It is a quaint story, but 
singularly true to nature. 

Gregory prevented from going to England. — 
Gregory had resolved to go as missionary to Britain, but 
all Eome resolved that he should not. He had wrung a 
reluctant consent from Pope Pelagius, and advanced three 
days' journey along the Plaminian Eoad. They had stopped 
to rest at noon, and Gregory was reading, when suddenly a 
locust leaped upon his book. His quaint playfulness was 
as ready as his courage. " Eightly is it called locusta," 
he said; " it seems to say, ' Loco sta.' I see we shall not 

1 Bseda, Hist. Eccl., ii. 1. 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 235 

be able to finisb our joiuney." He bad bardly spoken 
wben a burried messenger recalled bim to Kome, wbere 
tbe Pope's life bad been endangered by a mob, farious at 
Gregory's departure. He returned, to enter on public 
affairs, to conduct an embassy to Constantinople, to be 
Papal secretary, mucb against bis will to be Pope (a.d. 
590). But tbe plan, wbicb be bad vainly tried to carry 
out as a monk, be saw as Pope successfully carried out by 
anotber. Tbe conversion of tbe Englisb in Britain was 
begun by St. Augustine. 

Sketch of English History— a.d. 410-596.— Tbe 
Eoman province of Britain bad been Keltic and Cbristian, 
tbe Britain of Augustine was to a great extent Englisb 
and Pagan; wbat bad bappened in tbe intervening two 
centuries % 

Tbe independence of tbe province bad been acknow- 
ledged by Honorius in a.d. 409, and was maintained witb 
some difficulty till tbe middle of tbe century against 
encroacbing Picts and Scots. At last, barassed and plun- 
dered, bemmed in between enemies in tbe nortb and tbe 
sea in tbe soutb, tbe Kelts (so runs tbe story) begged for 
belp from tbeir Teutonic neigbbours across tbe German 
Ocean; and tbose wbo came to belp remained to conquer. 
In reality, bowever. Teutons bad come to Britain many 
years before, certainly before tbe end of tbe fourtb 
century. Even in tbe tbird century tbe depredations of 
Saxon pirates on tbe sbores of Gaul and Britain bad been 
sucli as to compel Diocletian to appoint a special oflS.cer 
for tbeir protection (Comes Littoris Saxonici).^ It is 
probable, tberefore, tbat tbe Teutonic conquest of Britain 
was ratber an immediate consequence of tbe cessation of 
Eoman protection tban the result of invitation. Tbere 
were doubtless many Teutonic tribes wbicb took part in 

2 Cf. Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxon Kings, vol. i. p. 44. 



236 History of the Roman Empire 

the invasion; but the three most important were the 
Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. They were all akin appa- 
rently, and came from the district of I^orth- Western 
Europe, which lies between the Ehine and Denmark. Of 
the Saxons we hear first; the Angles were most numer- 
ous; and the Jutes least numerous, occupying only Kent, 
the Isle of Wight, and part of Wessex. Hence " Saxon" 
was the name given to the English by the Kelts, while 
"Englaland" became the name of the country. They 
were all pagans and robbers. And though the struggle 
was long, in the end they drove before them or nearly 
extirpated the Keltic population, and with it whatever 
remained of Christianity and of Eoman civilisation. A 
small proportion they retained as slaves. The Teutonic 
conquest of Britain, therefore, was different from the 
Teutonic conquests in other parts of the Eoman Empire; 
for the English did not (like Vandals or Goths or Lom- 
bards) simply sit down as a conquering aristocracy amidst 
a vast surrounding population, in whose mass they w^ere 
presently lost; neither did they adopt the religion of the 
vanquished, or their language, or their civilisation. In 
Britain a civilised people was swept away by a barbarous, 
a Christian people by a pagan. At first (as was natural) 
there was but little union among the several tribes, and 
probably not a little strife, until the necessities of self- 
defence led to " federation," and seven kingdoms (the so- 
called " Heptarchy") emerged from the obscurity, — Kent, 
Essex (or East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex 
(West Saxons), East Anglia, Mercia (men of the " March" 
or frontier), and Northumberland, which stretched from 
the H umber to the Eirth of Forth. To give one instance 
of " federation," the Anglian kingdom of Mercia, in the 
centre of England, comprised West Saxons north of the 
Thames, Hwiccas in Gloucester and Worcester, Magesaetas 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 237 

ill Hereford, Gainas and Lindisfaras in Lincoln. It was 
not uncommon, moreover, for the king of some one of tlie 
kingdoms, by arts or arms, to acquire a certain ill-defined 
supremacy over the rest, which Bseda terms " Imperium," 
and the holder of which the Saxon chronicle calls " Bret- 
walda" (later " Brytenwalda "). Eight kings are men- 
tioned, of six different kingdoms, who gained this 
predominance, including Ecgberht of Wessex, who not 
only gained, but retained it, and handed it on to his 
descendants (a.d. 828). From that time the " imperium" 
remained with Wessex, which in the sixth and seventh 
centuries had been mostly held by JSTorthumberland, and 
in the eighth by Mercia. 

St. Augustine — a.d. 597. — It was to these Pagan Eng- 
lish that Pope Gregory, unable to go himself, sent Augus- 
tine from his own monastery of St. Andrew, with forty 
followers. They had reached Provence, when they began 
to hear awful rumours of that " savage, fierce, and unbe- 
lieving people, whose language even they did not under- 
stand," and sent back Augustine to beg Gregory to excuse 
them their dangerous task. But the Pope was inflexible, 
and they were forced to continue their journey. At this 
time, happily for the missionaries, ^thelberht (who had 
married Berhte, a Frankish princess, and a Christian) was 
king of East Kent and Bretwalda, as far as the Humber, 
When, therefore, they landed with their Frank inter- 
preters in the little isle of Thanet (separated in those days 
from Kent by a branch of the Stour about one-third of 
a mile in breadth), they were courteously welcomed by 
the king, who presently gave them audience, and Kstened 
to their message. His answer was no less courteous, 
declining indeed for himself to abandon abruptly the 
customs of his forefathers, but allowing them to stay 
among his people, and to preach as they would. He 



238 History of the Roman Empire 

further assigned them a house in Canterbury. There 
accordingly they lived, leading a simple apostolic life, 
and using Queen Berhte's venerable church of St. Martin 
outside the gates, which dated from Roman times. At 
first their converts were few j but rapidly increased, when 
^thelberht himself was baptised, moved thereto by the 
sight of their pure lives, and (says Bseda) their many 
miracles. Shortly the king retired from Canterbury to 
Eegulbium (Reculver), leaving his palace and an adjacent 
church to Augustine, the second Constantino of a second 
Sylvester, and here was built " Christ Church," the new 
cathedral, and very near to it the great monastery of 
St. Peter and St. Paul, afterwards known by Augustine's 
own name. 

Effects of Christianity in England. — But it was 
not all peace that the Roman missionaries brought with 
them. Fierce quarrels arose between the English clergy 
and the British Christians in Wales on various minor 
points, in which the latter followed the Eastern, rather 
than the Latin custom (such as the time for keeping 
Easter, the mode of tonsure, the marriage of priests, 
and the like), and preferred to do so ; while the former 
urged the paramount authority of St. Peter and his See. 
And then there was the constant danger of relapse, and 
of war between Pagans and Christians, for Latin Chris- 
tianity was but feebly rooted in England as yet. ^thel- 
berht's reign in Kent and Eadwine's in JN'orthumberland, 
were in each case followed by a return to paganism. In 
the latter case, indeed, it was not for long. In a few 
years I^orthumbria became once more Christian, at the 
preaching of the Scottish Aidan, whom King Oswald 
invited from the monastery of Hii (lona), and made. 
Bishop of Lindisfarnj and the progress of Christianity^, 
from north to south, would doubtless have been more 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 239 

rapid, but for the obstinate beatlienism and warlike 
genius of Penda the Mercian. As it was, little was 
effected for the general Christianisation of England until 
after his death (a.d. 655). Then the Christian Oswio 
overran Mercia and East Anglia, and presently became 
Bretwalda j and the wave of Christian civilisation, which 
had flowed from Scotland, and lifted Northumbria to 
the highest place among English kingdoms, before long 
touched even the southern kingdoms, and last of all the 
South Saxons. 

Then followed two centuries of brilliant missionary and 
intellectual activity, especially as contrasted with the 
heathenism and darkness of Danish times to follow. 
There was a constant stream of missionaries to the Con- 
tinent, of pilgrims to Eome. Learning, poetry, the arts 
began to flourish. B^da, Csedmon, Benedict, Biscop, 
Aidan, Ceadda, Wilfrith, Aldhelm, Winfrith (St. Boni- 
face) are names which attest the fact. But not only did 
Christianity stimulate the intellects of our English fore- 
fathers, and bring them into constant and elevating con- 
tact with foreigners, especially with Eome; it also mollified 
the general tone of thought. Wars of extermination ere 
long ceased j and the Christian English were content with 
the poHtical subjection (instead of the extirpation) of the 
Christian Welsh. Indeed, it seems hardly too much to 
say, that the stimulus of Christianity contributed not a 
little to that general elevation of political ideas, which 
resulted in the union of England under Ecgberht, first 
"King of the English" (a.d. 828). 

Gregory as Bishop, Pope, and (virtual) King. 
— But the conversion of England, though to England 
itself it was the beginning of a new life, and resulted 
remotely in the conversion^ of Germany, was but a small 

^ Cf. Milman's Latin Christianity, book iv. cajj. 5. 



240 History of the Roman Empire 

part of the life work of Gregory the Great — to his own 
age probably the smallest. He was Bishop of Eome, 
and ruled his diocese with diligence. He vigilantly 
superintended the Church ritual and music, and the dis- 
tribution of Papal charities. He administered the Church 
property with equal strictness and justice. He was also 
Pope,^ " Father of Fathers," and as such exercised super- 
vision over bishops and clergy, not only in Italy, but in 
Greece, Gaul, and Spain. This supremacy was a claim 
certainly not yet acknowledged in words, yet continually 
acknowledged in deeds — a claim tacitly made, sometimes 
resisted, more often allowed. When the Patriarch of 
Constantinople openly assumed the title of "Universal 
Bishop," as being bishop of the capital, Gregory protested 
vehemently against the assumption of such a title both 
to the Emperor and Empress, partly as derogating from 
the just rights of St. Peter's See, partly as a mark of 
pride. " jSTo one in the Church" (he writes to the Patriarch 
himself), '' has yet sacrilegiously dared to usurp the name 
of Universal Bishop. Whoever calls himself Universal 
Bishop is Antichrist." This protest, however, was, in 
fact (however much Gregory may have deceived himself), 
only a protest against the use by others of a title which 
the Bishops of Eome were slowly learning to arrogate to 
themselves. The claim to supremacy, which began in the 
fourth century, culminated in Innocent III. (about a.d. 
1200), and Gregory was but one link in the long chain of 
Popes who, consciously or unconsciously, aimed at despotic 
power. That it was a usurpation grounded in '^^ political 
troubles of the times may be true enough \ but none the 
less it was a usurpation. As Patriarch of the West, 
Gregory saw the downfall of Arianism in both Gaul and 
Spain, and the conversion, as of the English, so of the 
4 Qf^ Stanley's Eastern Church, p. 98. 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 241 

Lombards through his influence with Queen Theodelinda. 
But Gregory was not only Bishop and Pope ; he was in 
influence, though not avowedly, a temporal sovereign. 
And here it must be admitted this position was thrust 
upon him rather than of his own seeking. The natural 
defenders of the Imperial city were unable or unwilling 
to defend her ^ and the Pope had the best of titles in the 
love and good-will of his subjects. During his pontifi- 
cate Gregory found food in Sicily for a famishing people, 
already decimated by plague, and he encouraged the 
Pomans to stand a siege from Autharis, the Lombard 
king (a.d. 593). Constantinople was very far away; and 
to men who had no visible rulers before their eyes, but 
the fierce Lombard at Pavia, and the wretched Exarch at 
Pavenna, it is no wonder that Gregory seemed a natural 
leader, a king with the best of credentials. It is most 
important, therefore,' to remember (as a clue to after 
history) that Gregory was not only Pope, but that his 
high character won for him a position as Patriarch of the 
West not reached by any of his predecessors ; and that 
this and political circumstances combined, gave him the 
position, though not the name of king. 

Gregory II. — a.d. 716. — Gregory the Great died March 
10, A.D. 604; and the preponderating influence of the 
Papacy in the West increased rather than diminished. 
Eome became increasingly the centre of the faith, '^o'w, 
however much this may have been due to the feebleness 
of the Emperors who reigned between Herachus and Leo 
III. (a.d. u'*1-718), — and this was really only one cause 
among many, — it was certainly not due to the greatness 
or the character of the Popes. In the century which 
elapsed between the death of Gregory the Great and the 
accession of Gregory II. no less than twenty-four Popes 
fidled the Papal Chair, few of whom rose above utter 



kOM. EMP. 



242 History of the Roman Empire 

obscurity (a.d. 604-716). The high-handed persecution 
and miserable death of Martin I. at the hands of Con- 
stans II. (a.d. 654) might fairly be matched against the 
extraordinary vicissitudes and pitiless cruelties of the 
Emperor Justinian II. (a.d. 685-711). With the acces- 
sion, however, of Pope Gregory II. (a.d. 716) and of the 
Emperor Leo. III. (a.d. 710), we enter on a new phase 
of the history of Italy and of Christendom. 

Rise of Iconoclasm. — In the eighth century a reli- 
gious question arose — Iconoclasm — quite different to all 
previous religious questions. It was nothing less than an 
attempt on the part of an Emperor to modify the religion 
of his subjects, by his own mere fiat — to change the 
universal daily worship of the Christian world. It was 
an attempt to proscribe the reverence — or worship — of 
images. At the same time it differed from previous con- 
tests, in that it originated with the Emperor himself — 
that it was probably suggested to his mind from without 
and not from within, by acquaintance perhaps with 
Jewish and Mohammedan ideas upon the subject — that 
it was a question, not of speculative belief, but of daily 
ritual, affecting the inmost and inveterate feelings of 
every age aud class and sex — that it admitted, therefore, 
of no argument, but only of appeals to force — lastly, that 
it was a purely negative doctrine, a sort of premature 
Eationalism. A small minority in the Empire, headed 
by the Emperor, conceived the idea (no matter how or 
whence) that it was wrong to reverence, much more to 
worship, all images or pictures of sacred subjects; and 
having conceived it, they tried to enforce it on the immense 
majority of their fellow-Christians, of whose lives the 
deepest reverence, and in the case of the great mass, the 
actual worship of these images had become an inseparable 
part. The Church indeed in this, as in similar matters, had 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 243 

shown great practical wisdom, and in order to win the 
ignorant had adopted from. Paganism certain universal, 
harmless, perhaps beautiful customs, which, however, 
tended to superstition. Such a custom was the use of 
altars, flowers, candles, processions, holy water, incense, 
votive offerings, shrines at cross roads, and the like. Such, 
too, was the use of images and pictures. But what was 
symbolism to the educated, a beautiful aid to devotion, 
had become idolatry in the uneducated, downright wor- 
ship of the material image — an idolatry which tended to 
localise, and therefore limit, divine power, and from which 
the history of 1000 years, and the sharp teaching of a 
seventy years' captivity, could scarcely wean the Jews. 
It was in spite of Christianity that such idolatry lingered 
(and still lingers) in a Christian Church. JN'evertheless, 
the attempt to uproot it by force in the eighth century 
was an anachronism and a mistake. 

Leo III. the Isaurian — a.d. 717-741. — Leo III. 
became Emperor in a.d. 717. His father had migrated 
from Asia Minor to Thrace, and the son first saw military 
service in the guards of Justinian II. Like Tiberius 
and Justin, and the great Theodosius, the glory won 
in war raised him to the throne, on which he sat 
for twenty-four years, and handed down the purple to 
the third generation. In the second year of his reign 
he successfully defended the capital for thirteen months 
against 120,000 Arabs and Persians under Moslemah, the 
brother of the Caliph, his success being not a little due 
to the fataP " Greek fire," which for 400 years was the 
main defence of the Empire. And this defeat of the 
Saracens by Leo (hke the defeat of their brethren at 
Tours by Charles Martel, in a.d. 732) was one of the 
greatest events in history ; for had the Saracens in either 

^ Cf. Gibbon, Milman's ed. vol. v. cap. 52, p. 182. 



244 History of the Roman Empire 

case been victorious, it is hard to see how Christian 
civilisation could have withstood the shock. 

Attempts to force Iconoclasni upon Christen- 
dom — A.D. 726. — Leo, to us, however, is mainly interest- 
ing as the "Iconoclast." He had been nine years on the 
throne, when he published his first edict against (as yet 
only) the wovsliip of statues and images (a.d. 726). In 
four "or five years (before a.d. 731) a more severe edict 
followed, commanding their total destruction, and the 
white-washing of all churches. It is difficult to imagine 
how a man with even Leo's energy, courage, and prestige, 
could begin so rash a contest. Riots at once broke out 
in the capital, in Greece, and the ^gean. In Constan- 
tinople an officer was beaten to death by women while 
defacing an image of the Saviour. 

Iconoclastic Controversy in the Bast — a.d. 726- 
842. — The monks throughout the Empire openl}'- insti- 
gated rebellion. And for once the Bishops of Eome 
and Constantinople were agreed. The arrival of the 
Imperial edict in Eavenna (a.d. 728) was the signal for 
instant insurrection against the Exarch Scholasticus, of 
which the Lombard Luitprand availed himself to besiege 
and seize the city, and to overrun the Pentapolis. In 
vain did the Pope write two letters to the Emperor of 
mingled defiance and expostulation. In vain did the 
learned John of Damascus publish three orations in 
defence of image worship. The Emperor Leo and his 
son Constantine (a.d. 717-775) were not men to recede 
lightly from a position deliberately adopted; indeed, it 
would seem as if they had overawed or convinced a large 
number of the eastern clergy, for the third Council 
of Constantinople was attended by 348 bishops, who 
unanimously condemned the worship of images (a.d. 746). 
And not only so ; Constantine inaugurated, and his sub- 



The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 245 

jects apparently abetted him in a cruel persecution of the 
monks; and had succeeding emperors held the same 
views and possessed similar resolution, the eighth century- 
might have seen the final destruction of image worship 
in the East. But in a.d. 780, the Empire fell into the 
hands of a woman, the Empress Irene, who was at once 
ambitious and superstitious. Her heart was set upon 
restoring image worship at any cost; and by persistent 
intrigue for five years, she succeeded in convoking a 
council of about 370 ecclesiastics at JSTiceea (a.d. 785), 
who proclaimed the lawfulness of images and pictures as 
'•'holy memorials, to be worshipped and kissed,^' and 
anathematized all who called images idols. Nor was her 
heart less set upon retaining power; for in a.d. 797, in 
order to oust her son Constantine, she had him seized 
and brutally blinded, so that he almost died. Images 
were finally re-established as legal in the Eastern Church 
by the Empress Theodora (a.d. 842). 

Attitude of the Popes in the West. — a.d. 726- 
740. — In the West, meanwhile, matters were progressing 
at a rapid pace. In a.d. 730, a council was held by 
Gregory II. at Eome, which renounced communion with 
the Emperor. The first act of Gregory HI. (a.d. 731-741) 
was to acquaint the Byzantine court with his adherence 
to his predecessor's views; and his next to decree, by 
a council at Rome (a.d. 732), that "whoever should 
overthrow, &c., the images of Christ and the glorious 
Virgin, of the blessed apostles and saints, was banished 
from the unity of the Church." The Pope himself set 
the example of image worship on the grandest scale. 
In the same year, moreover, the last great effort on the 
part of the Eastern Empire to reduce Italy and the Pope 
once again to subjection, ended in utter failure. A 
large combined fleet and army on its way to Italy was 



246 History of the Roman Empire 

caught in a violent storm in the Adriatic and utterly 
destroyed. Tor twenty years more, indeed, the Exarch 
maintained a precarious position in Eavenna, finally 
abandoning it for l^Taples; and the Empire learned to 
acquiesce in an inevitable loss. But to the Pope this 
virtual victory over the Empire might well seem to 
involve a virtual subjection to the hated Lombards — 
hated even though they were no longer Arians. A new 
barbarian kingdom seemed on the point of absorbing all 
Italy. Gregory looked round for help, being cut off in 
reality (though not in name) from all connection with 
Constantinople, and found it across the Alps. The 
alliance, now begun, between the Papacy and the Franks 
was a "Eevolution," fruitful in consequences little foreseen 
and not yet exhausted, which have affected all subsequent 
history. " 



%f%in!!'' 




(ROM 




lUou I HI I 






CHAPTER XIV, 
THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY.— a.d. 500-800. 

The Franks. — In the middle of the eighth century 
the Imperial power in Italy was dead, and the Pope and 
the Lombards were left alone face to face. But the 
exaggerated, if not entirely unfounded, horror with which 
the Church regarded the Lombards rendered peace be- 
tween them impossible; and when Luitprand's conquests 
threatened Eome and all Italy with subjection, Gregory 
IIL, A.D. 731-741 (treading in the footsteps of Gregory 
IL), appealed for aid to the mighty Frank beyond the 
Alps, Charles Martel, whose name was in every mouth 
as the saviour of Europe from the hitherto invincible 
Mohammedans. A clear understanding of the history of 
the Franks in Gaul, and of their relations to the Papacy, 
is an essential introduction to the study of the history of 
Germany, Italy, and France; and the appeal of Gregory to 
Charles marks the moment when the dignity and power 
of "Eoman Emperor" was about to pass into quite other 
hands, and with other prerogatives than heretofore. 

Gaul under the Romans. — For 400 years Gaul was 
a province of the Eoman Empire, incorporated with it 
more entirely, perhaps, than any other province. Its con- 
quest had been thorough in the first instance, and the 
Roman system had been applied with success, The sur- 



248 History of the Roman Empire 

face of the country was covered with more than 100 
municipia; schools were widely established by Augustus 
and by Claudius; many writers of eminence were born 
and lived there; wealth abounded. But, below a bril- 
liant surface, there were causes of decay similar to those 
which were the ruin of Italy. The sentiment of nation- 
ality was gradually destroyed when Gaul became only 
a part of a vast empire, and was not replaced by any 
feeling of " loyalty," which the Empire indeed was hardly 
calculated to arouse.^ When the Emperor Honorius, 
in the fifth century, tried to galvanise into life the Gallic 
patriotism by reviving the annual " diet " at Aries, no 
response whatever was made to the proposal. The Keltic 
language and religion retreated into Brittany before the 
Eoman tongue and Eoman Christianity. The Imperial 
system, moreover, spoiled the municipal; and its taxa- 
tion, at once crushing and unfairly assessed, impoverished 
the farmers and landed proprietors. And the same 
latifundia which had ruined Italy ruined Gaul also, and 
for similar reasons. But in Gaul, as in Italy, one class 
of men increased in influence, as all around them decayed. 
However intolerant or grasping they may have been, the 
Christian clergy — brave, moral, and educated — stepped 
into the place of the fading Empire, resisted it when tyran- 
nical, wielded its powers when decrepit, and alone pre- 
sented a courageous front to wrong, vice, and barbarism. 

Invasion of Roman Gaul — a.d. 406. — Such (briefly) 
was the state of the province, when it was suddenly over- 
whelmed at the beginning of the fifth century by the long- 
dreaded inroad of barbarians from beyond the Ehine and 
the Alps. Yandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Visigoths, Franks, 
together or successively, swept across or occupied the un- 
happy province. The two first passed on into Spain and 

^ Cf. Guizot's Hist. Civilisation, vol. i. p. 31. 



The Fra7iks and the Papacy 249 

Africa, the others remained to subdue and eventually 
divide Gaul between them, though but little is known of 
their mutual relations until the end of the century. 

Graul divided between Visigoths, Burgundians, 
and Franks. — Speaking generally, by the year a.d. 490 
the Visigoths were masters of the country between the 
Ehone, the Loire, the Atlantic, and the Garonne; the 
Burgundians of that between the Ehone, the Saone, and 
the Alps ; and the Franks of nearly all the rest (with the 
exception of the Keltic Armorica or Brittany) as far as 
the mouth of the Ehine. But the Erank Empire was not 
only on the west of the river, but comprised a large, though 
iU-defined tract between the Ehine and the Weser, which 
touched the Saxons on the north and the Alemanni on the 
south. Amidst this drifting mass of diverse peoples — of 
High Dutch and Low Dutch, of Eomans, Kelts, and 
Basques — there was no controlling central power until the 
time of Chlodwig (Clovis, Ludwig, Lewis, a.d, 486-511). 

Chlodwig and the Merwing Dynasty — a.d. 486- 
752. — By a fortunate marriage with the orthodox Chlothild 
of Burgundy, which resulted in the conversion of himself 
and his people, and secured to him the support of the 
Catholic clergy, and by a series of successful struggles with 
successive foes, Chlodwig became practical lord of the whole 
of Gaul and of all Franks between the Weser and Garonne, 
and virtual founder of the Merwing (Merovingian) rulers in 
Francia, both Eastern and Western; for Erancia comprised 
two very diiferent populations. On the eastern side of the 
Scheldt and the Marne (Austrasia) were pure Franks of 
the old stock, who spoke German and followed German 
customs; on the western side (ISTeustria) were Franks, 
modified by contact with Eoman civilisation and more 
settled life. Among the latter, as was natural, despotic 
ideas of centralisation became predominant; among the 



250 History of the Roman Empire 

former aristocratical ideas. Hence followed strong feel- 
ing and jealous rivalry; and, indeed, tlie story of the 180 
years which followed the death of Chlodwig (511-687), 
is the story of a constant struggle for power between 
]N"eustria and Austrasia, which was settled in favour of 
the latter by the battle of Testry. The reduction, how- 
ever, by Chlodwig of Burgundy (a.d. 500) and Aquitaine 
(a.d. 507) was rather an irruption than a conquest, for they 
were lost almost as soon as won, the Merwing dominion 
consisting properly of Western Germany and I^orthern 
Gaul. The glory of the family culminated in Dagobert I. 
(a.d. 628-638), whose influence touched Brittany on one 
side and the Pyrenees on the other. Allied with Lombards 
in Italy and Yisigoths in Spain, he sent an embassy to 
Heraclius at Constantinople,^and chastised the aggressions 
of Slavonians and Bulgarians in Germany, while he chose 
able men to help him govern. However, in spite of one or 
two bright exceptions, the Merwings were mere barbarians 
compared with the Kariings who followed. The warlike 
energy of the nation, indeed, backed by the unhesitating 
support of the Church, carried their victorious arms over 
haK Europe; but there was the same lack of organisation 
and discipline in the subjects, of fixed purpose and poKcy 
in the kings, which marked the early records of the 
!N"orthmen in the ninth and tenth centuries. 

Rise of the Mayors of the Palace. — Almost all 
their kings were mere cyphers, surrounded by a number of 
fierce territorial chieftains, overshadowed more and more 
by the rising power of the " Major-do miis," wh'o, being at 
first only the master of the royal household, rose to com- 
mand the Antrustions^ (the Principes of Tacitus), and 
at last to preside over the dukes, counts, and bishops of the 
great council. Such powers in the hands of a series of 

^ Cf. Tacitus' Germania, caps. vii. and xi. to xiv. 



The Franks and the Papacy 251 

able men (like the family of Pippin) soon obscured those 
of the merely nominal cyning (king), or leader of the 
people, who was reserved (as Eginhard tells us) for the 
merely formal duties of kingship. The power of these 
" mayors " reached its highest pitch in Pippin of Heristal, 
the Austrasian, and his sons. They secured the supremacy 
of Austrasia over Neustria, and the reversion of royal 
power for themselves. 

Charles Martel — Battle of Tours — a.d. 732. — 
Charles, the son of Pippin, indeed gained a glory all his 
own. He defeated the Saracens at Tours (a.d. 732). The 
bareness of such a statement ill reflects the true import of 
such a conflict, or its vast consequences. It was but a 
century since Mohammed had died; yet half the old 
Roman Empire was Mohammedan, and from the Oxus to 
the Pyrenees the Arabs had conquered almost without a 
check. As yet, moreover, they were at amity among 
themselves; and the Saracen armies in Spain and Gaul 
were led by an experienced general, i\.bderrahman. In 
A.D. 732 he crossed the Pyrenees with a force of 100,000 
men (not for the first time), and met with little serious 
resistance in the south of Gaul. His African light cavalry 
(like Hannibal's jN"umidians) were equally serviceable for 
battle, for pillage, or for reconnoitring, and carried the 
terror of the Saracen name as far north as the Loire. 
Count Eudes in Aquitaine attempted resistance, but was 
swept away in the torrent. And Charles, meanwhile, the 
Austrasian Mayor, was bnsy with a Saxon war far away. 
But the pressing danger, the panic of Christian Gaul, 
presently recalled him. The two armies met on the 
banks of the Loire near Tours, and even Arab historians 
admit that the defeat of their forces was complete, "a 
disgraceful overthrow." Eor one whole day the battle 
raged with no decisive result, night parting the com- 



252 History of the Roman Empire 

batants. It was renewed at the following dawn. But a 
too long course of unbroken victory had shaken the 
steadiness and lowered the morale of the Arab armies. 
In the midst of the struggle a rumour ran, like an electric 
current, through the Mohammedan lines, that a division of 
Franks was attacking and spoiling their camp, in which 
was piled great store of wealth, the plunder of Aquitaine, 
At once a large body of Arab horsemen rode off to save 
their booty. To their comrades it looked like flight, and 
the rest of the army began to waver. It was the critical 
moment, which comes in every battle, when one army 
becomes conscious of its moral inferiority to the other as 
a whole, and, despite the courage and exertions of indi- 
viduals, is aheady virtually beaten. In vain did Abderrah- 
man strive to check the confusion. He was pierced by a 
Erankish spear, and fell, and his faU v/as the signal for 
a general flight. We need not admit the preposterous 
estimates of monkish chroniclers as to the relative losses 
on either side, in order to perceive that Tours was to 
Europe a " crowning mercy." 

Results of Charles' Victory. — The defeat of the 
Saracens at Tours, even more than their repulse from 
Constantinople, meant the salvation of Christendom from 
an enforced return to the lethargy, sterility, and arrested 
development which has always marked Mohammedanism. 
Had the Franks been defeated, there was no power 
strong enough to arrest the Arab progress : and what 
has been said with truth of the victory of Arminius over 
Varus (a.d. 9), is said with equal truth of the victory of 
Tours, that it was " one of those signal deliverances which 
have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind."^ 

Gregory III. Appeals to Charles — a.d. 738. — 
The fame of Charles " The Hammer " was measured by 

2 Arnold's Eom. Commonwealth, ii. p. 317. 



The Franks and the Papacy 253 

the previous panic of Christian Europe. He might seem 
even the Protector of Christianity itself. It was little 
wonder that Pope Gregory TIL, hopeless of aid from any 
other source, and plundered and insulted by the Lom- 
bards, should have sent a letter of piteous entreaty 
imploring Charles' aid. It seems, indeed, that Gregory 
deserved his fate; for he had encouraged a Lombard 
Duke of Spoleto to rebel against King Luitprand, in 
revenge for which the king wasted the Papal territory, 
and even probably plundered St. Peter's itself. On the 
other hand, it is impossible that Gregory should have 
realised the full importance of his own appeal; for it was 
nothing less than the first step in. a gigantic revolution, 
from which the Pope was to emerge as a temporal 
sovereign, and the Prankish king as " Holy Roman 
Emperor." In Gregory's appeal was involved the very 
kernel of mediaeval history. 

The actual offer made by the Pope was perhaps inten- 
tionally vague. He sent the very keys of the tomb of 
St. Peter. He named Charles Patrician and Consul. 
But were these mere bribes, or actual symbols of an 
allegiance transferred from the Greek to the Prank? 
Wliich they were, it is hard to say ; yet two things are 
clear, that at this stage of the matter neither of the parties 
was at all alive to the consequences of their new relation ; 
while, on the other hand, indefinite jealousies, claims, and 
encroachments were possibly involved. 

Gregory Succeeded by Pope Zacharias — a.d. 74 L 
— Both Charles and Gregory, however, died in the autumn 
of A.D. 741 ; and the new Pope Zacharias (a.d. 741-752) 
was a different man to Gregory. He combined a majesty 
and a gentleness truly apostolic, with a far greater insight 
into character than his predecessors. Where Gregory had 
quailed before Luitprand, Zacharias led him with threads of 



254 History of the Roman Empife 

silk. The Lombard was warlike and ambitious ; but lie was 
also sincerely religious, with, the religion of a superstitious 
and illiterate barbarian. Twice did the Pope interfere 
between Luitprand and his cherished plans of aggrandise- 
ment, imploring, threatening, almost forbidding; and 
twice the Lombard yielded. It is indeed essential to 
remark how rapidly the influence of the Church was 
growing among the new-formed nations, thanks to the 
intelligence, firmness, and moral purity of the clergy; as 
well as to note the fact that Church authorities were begin- 
ning to use their enormous, though undefined, power for 
purposes purely secular. Already kings were abandon- 
ing the throne for the monastery, as a piirer and happier 
sphere. Carloman did so, the son of Charles Martel — 
a king in all but the name ; Eachis, the Lombard, did 
so; and when Pippin, Carlo man's brother, supplanted 
the Merwing by the Karling dynasty, nothing seemed 
more natural than that the wretched Chilperic should 
retire to the peaceful obscurity of a monastery. 

Coronation of Pippin. — a.d. 752. — This great 
revolution was scarcely perceived in passing. Pippin 
was elected, as by ancient Prankish custom, by the clash 
of arms and elevation on a buckler; but the election 
was sanctioned by the Pope, and Christian bishops 
were standing round, and the holy oil, the symbol 
of divine right, was poured on his head by the English 
Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz (a.d. 752). It was the 
first time in history, but not the last, that the Church 
sanctioned the transfer of a crown ; and on this the first 
occasion her motives were transparently secular, if not 
selfish. Sanction on the one side was bartered for pro- 
tection on the other. 

Pippin and Pope Stephen — a.t). 753-55. — And 
the protection was soon sorely needed. Luitprand was 



The Franks and the Papacy 255 

dead, and Astolph was king of tlie LomlDards, a man of 
energy little burdened with, scruples. He entered the 
Exarchate and seized Eavenna. He quarrelled with the 
Pope and advanced on Eome, deaf alike to threats and 
entreaties. Stephen in despair, for Zacharias was now 
dead, fled to Gaul and implored, not in vain, the aid of 
Pippin. But Astolph, aware of the coming storm, per- 
suaded Carloman to leave his convent and claim the 
Austrasian crown, hoping to sever the alliance between 
Stephen and his brother. It was a vain attempt, and 
only ended in the lifelong imprisonment of Carloman, as 
a monk who had broken his vows. Pippin and Stephen 
crossed the Alps, and Astolph was shut up in Pavia, and 
made to swear to restore all Eoman territory. But such 
vows are "writ in water." I^o sooner were the Alps between 
the Franks and himself, than Astolph marched once more 
upon Eome, and demanded the surrender of the Pope. 
Once, and yet a second time, did Stephen send agonized 
letters imploring Pippin's instant return. Victory over 
all barbarian nations was the promised reward, and 
eternal life. But there was terrible delay. The Prank 
did not come. And at last, in a paroxysm of terror (it is 
the only conceivable defence), Stephen sent a letter pur- 
porting to have been written by St. Peter himself, adjur- 
ing Pippin, in the name of the " Mother of God," to save 
her beloved Eome from the detested Lombards, and pro- 
mising again protection and victory in this life, certain 
salvation in the next. Pippin delayed no more, and 
recrossed the Alps ; while Astolph, forced to throw him- 
self hastily into Pavia, was there besieged and reduced to 
yield to all demands. 

Pippin's "Donation" to the Papacy. — The 
Exarchate was wrested with impartial violence from 
Eastern Empire and Lombard king, and bestowed by the 



256 History of the Roman Empire 

sword of the stronger on the Bishop of Eome, who thus 
became a temporal sovereign, with all a sovereign's preroga- 
tives, taxation, justice, and the like. The "donation" was 
presently increased by the voluntary surrender of the 
Duchy of S|)oleto, and afterwards confirmed by Charles 
the Great to Pope Hadrian, and increased to comprise 
a large part of Italy. On the other hand, Pippin 
received the title of Patrician of Pome, a name implying 
powers both vague and extensive. The Lombard Astolph 
did not long survive this last humiliation, and with his 
death the weakness inherent in the Lombard kingdom, 
whose numbers were comparatively few, and whose central 
government was comparatively feeble owing to the turbu- 
lence and independence of the great chieftains, rapidly 
resulted in its ruin. Desiderius, the last of the Lombard 
kings (a.d. 757-774), was at intervals, indeed, at peace and 
amity with the Pope, and an ally of Charles, who married 
his daughter Hermingard; but the alliance and the amity 
were aHke short-lived, and both Lombards and Italians 
were absorbed ere long into the " Poman Empire'' resusci- 
tated by Charles the Great. 

Charles Succeeds Pippin — a.d. 768-774. — Pippin 
died in a.d. 768, and divided his dominions (accord- 
ing to custom) between his sons Charles and Carloman. 
Happily for the peace of Francia, the latter died within 
three years (a.d. 771), and Charles restored or usurped 
the undivided kingdom of his father. The widow and 
the sons of Carloman at once took refuge with Desiderius, 
ibr Charles had divorced Hermingard only a year after 
his marriage, to wed the Suabian Hildegard, and Desiderius 
was eager for revenge. On which side was Pope Hadrian 
to range himself ] His predecessor Stephen had protested 
against Charles' marriage with Hermingard at all — not, 
indeed, on the Christian ground that he was married 



The Franks and the Papacy 257 

already, but on the mi-Christian ground that any alliance 
between "noble" Frank and " foetid, leprous" Lombard 
was abominable, detestable, devilish. And now the 
claims of righteousness might likewise seem to call for 
disapproval of the usurping adulterous Charles, and a 
hearty support of Carloman's sons and their friend De- 
siderius. But Hadrian was wise in his generation, and 
steadily declined to commit himself. The Pope's hesita- 
tion, and the murder in Rome of one of his own partisans, 
incensed the Lombard into ravaging Romania (the Eo- 
magna), and even advancing on Eome. But Hadrian 
was neither a coward like Stephen, nor an apostle like 
Zacharias. He gathered troops, strengthened fortifica- 
tions, barricaded the Vatican, and sent off hasty appeals 
to Charles for help ; and then fell back on his spiritual 
weapons, threatening Desiderius with excommunication if 
he dared to attack him. The Lombard, blind to his 
danger, refused all negotiations; his son, Adelchis, even 
defeated a Frank army in the Alps. But it was only de- 
ferring the evil day. The Lombards were but a handful 
in the midst of a native population, who looked on the 
Pope as their "head," and the Franks as their "de- 
liverers." Charles passed the Alps, and in a moment (as 
it were) was master of all JN'orth Italy, except the cities 
of Pavia and Verona, in which Desiderius and Adelchis 
respectively were blockaded (a.d, 774). 

Charles Increases the " Donation." — At Easter 
he went on to Eome, and being there welcomed with 
such honours as became so orthodox and useful a champion, 
added to and ratified the donation of land made by his 
father Pippin. For Pavia had fallen; Desiderius was in 
a. monastery; Adelchis had fled to Constantinople; and 
the whole territory of the Exarchate, and a part of that 
of the Lombards, was confirmed as the possession of the 

ROM. EMP. K 



258 History of the Roman Empire 

Pope; and however obscure may have been the conditions 
of the Papal tenure, it is no less clear that this donation 
was the basis and foundation of that " temporal power" 
which has so deeply affected the character and history of 
the Eoman Church. 

Charles Crowned Emperor of the West — a.d. 
800. — But even the protection of the great Prank did 
not save the Popes from troubles. The Archbishop of 
Eavenna refused submission to Hadrian (a.d. 775), and 
the Lombards rebelled against him (a.d. 787). Leo III. 
was set upon during a solemn procession by two nephews 
and an armed train, beaten, mutilated, half-murdered 
(a.d. 799). It seemed indeed more than ever necessary 
to hold fast a powerful protector by strong chains. In 
the next year Charles crossed the Alps in the late autumn, 
and Leo, after a solemn trial, was acquitted of certain 
charges brought against him. And Charles and Leo, 
Franks and Italians, nobles, clergy, people were assembled 
at Home in crowds to celebrate Christmas. All had met 
together for the solemn service. The Basilica of St. Peter's 
was crowded. The Pope himself chanted high mass. At 
its close he advanced from his throne in the centre of the 
aj^se, and in the sight of the vast congregation placed on 
Charles' head, as he knelt in prayer by the altar, the 
diadem of the Caesars, while the great church rang with 
the shout, "Karolo Augusto, a Deo coronato magno et 
pacifico Imperatori, vita et victoria." In spite of the 
assertion that Charles disliked the proceeding, and had 
he known the intentions of the Pontiff would not have 
entered the church, it is difficult to believe in the spon- 
taneity of the spectacle, or to doubt that it was prearranged 
between Leo and Charles. But whether prearranged or 
spontaneous matters little; the fact remains. The current 
of the world's history was changed. 



The Franks and the Papacy 259 

Results of Coronation. — What, then, was the 
meaning of this apparently simple act of gratitude ? and 
in what results did it end % It was certainly an act of 
gratitude (as well as something else) on the part of the 
Eomans, and of Leo their representative, who despised the 
Grreeks and hated the Lombards, and might expect in the 
future, as they had experienced in the past, the friendship 
and protection of the Franks. But it was more than this. 
It was a recognition of the "logic of facts," that the 
Eastern Empire was a defunct power in Italy, and that 
the political " centre of gravity" had shifted. For (be it 
remembered) neither the title nor the office of Emperor 
was new, nor was the actual power of Charles in any way 
increased, but only its character changed. And the 
change was a striking one. Once more the Imperial city 
gave an Emperor to the West; and that Emperor was 
neither Eoman nor Italian, but German. IsTo longer were 
charters to be dated or money to be coined in the name 
of a titular " Eoman Emperor" at Constantinople, but of 
one who was not only patrician, like Pippin and Pippin's 
father, or king, like Theodoric, but actual Emperor of the 
West, hke Theodosius. Power was recognised as being 
where in reality it was. One new factor, however, was intro- 
duced into the matter, whose powers were unfortunately 
indefinite. It was clear to all that the Imperial crown 
had been bestowed by the hands of the Pope. The ques- 
tion arose in after days. Did he give it as of right; and if 
so, whence came the right? Eor the time indeed the 
question did not even suggest itself, so humble and weak 
was the Pope, so immeasurably great was the Emperor; 
but the greatness of the Emperor was personal and com- 
mensurate only with his life, while the humihty of a Pope 
detracted nothing from the growing majesty of the Papacy. 
The prescriptive prerogatives of even an Emperor were 



26o History of the Roman Empire 

relatively weak when men thought of the Pope as Goers 
mouthpiece upon earth ; but for the present the two 
powers were incommensurable; and the idea which arose 
in Otto's day (a.d. 936-973) of two co-ordinate powers, 
Emperor and Pope, ruling under God over the temporal 
and spiritual affairs of men, would in Charles' day have 
been an anachronism. 

It remains to speak shortly of Charles himself — his 
conquests and character — as of a man who, while he 
handed down to his successors the dubious advantage of 
the Imperial title, was himself the first founder of German 
unity, — a man who was so "great" in every sense, that he 
took captive (like Attila) the imaginations of the men of 
his own and succeeding ages, and became the typical hero 
of mediaeval romance.^ 

Conquests of Charles the Great. — The conquests 
of Charles were the foundation of the great German king- 
dom. His wars lasted almost without interruption for 
forty-six years, during which lie swept across Europe from 
the Ebro to the Oder, from Brittany to Hungary, — never 
meeting, it may be, with any really serious antagonist, 
yet always needing skill, perseverance, and sleepless 
energy. Aquitaine he pacified in six months. The 
Lombards he reduced in less than two years. Against 
the Avars, by himself or his lieutenants, he waged eight 
successive campaigns (a.d. 791-9), against the Saxons 
no less than thirty two, — the latter a "religious war," 
and waged with all the tender mercies that distin- 
guish such anomalies. The Erank arms were seen in 
Slavonia, Brittany, Bavaria, Bohemia, Southern Italy, and 
Spain. In the last-named country alone, and against the 
Saracens, he met with little success; Saragossa was besieged 

* See an interesting article on Carlovingian Eomance, in the Edin- 
burgh Eeview for April 1862. 



The Franks and the Papacy 261 

in vainj and as lie returned through the Pyrenean passes 
to more important matters in Gaul, the combined Arabs and 
Basques fell upon his rear at Eoncesvalles and inflicted a 
loss which romance has magnified into a serious defeat. In 
fact, the kingdom of Pippin was nearly doubled by the 
victories of his son. Eginhard enumerates Aquitaine and 
Gascony — the Pyrenees and Spain to the Ebro — Italy 
from Aosta to Calabria — Saxonia, " a country" (he says) 
"twice as large as Prancia" — Pannonia, Dacia, Dalmatia, 
Istria — and lastly, whatever barbarous tribes were to be 
found between the Ehine, the Danube, the Yistula, and 
the ocean, as so many additions to the Empire. 

His Policy. — Not that all this success was achieved 
by mere activity. Charles showed the qualities which 
all great generals show: he improved his war material, 
his armour, his breed of horses; he out-generalled his 
enemies by superior tactics, as in his first campaign against 
the Avars, when he adopted a double base of operations,^ 
and anticipated the strategy of l!^apoleon's famous cam- 
paign of Austerlitz (a.d. 1805); he combined self-reliance 
with reliance on his subordinates; he did not forget policy 
on the battle-field, but in Italy as in Spain was the cham- 
pion of vanquished against victors, of oppressed against 
oppressors. He conciliated the affection of his German 
subjects by maintaining German institutions. He courted 
the alliance of neighbouring kings, of the Kings of Scots 
and the Asturias, of Offa of Mercia, and Ecgberht of 
Wessex, as well as that of more distant and powerful 
rulers like the Emperor at Constantinople, or the Caliph 
at Bagdad. He remained from first to last a staunch 
friend of the Church, its too liberal benefactor; going far, 
by the immunities and privileges which he granted, to 

5 Cf. Thierry — Histoire d'Attila, vol. ii. p. 156 ; Alison's Europe, 
•yol. ix. cap. 40. 



262 History of the Roman Einpwe 

make claims possible whicli only Ms own commanding 
vigour and wisdom could resist. The untiring energy of 
his policy and his wars is to be seen no less in his adminis- 
tration. None but energy almost superhuman could have 
devised or attempted to carry out the gigantic system of 
" Missi dominii," regulated by a law of a.d. 802. They 
were a sort of king's messengers deputed to visit every 
corner of the Empire — to observe, to inquire, to order, to 
regulate, to punish — organs of a central authority, to 
whom they sent in an annual report of the wants and 
condition of every class. And this is only one instance 
out of many. 

Character and Person of Charles. — It sometimes 
adds life and definiteness to our ideas of a man, if we can 
picture to ourselves his appearance and personal charac- 
teristics ; and in Charles' case this is comparatively 
easy with the minute account left us by Eginhard (or 
Einhard), his Minister of Public Works. He was every 
inch a king. Tall and robust, he had a dome-like head, 
large and piercing eyes, white hair, and an expression full 
of grace and dignity; and so excellent was his constitu- 
tion, that until he was seventy he did not know what ill- 
ness meant. He was passionately devoted to riding, 
hunting, and swimming; for which latter reason he made 
Aachen, with its natural warm springs, his favourite 
home; and bathing parties were one of the common 
amusements of his court, in which 100 persons or more 
would take part at a time. He had a quaint humour, 
and appreciated it in others, as ^ when on a day of storm 
and rain he made his courtiers, all in furs and silk, ac- 
company him in a sudden hunting frolic; or concocted a 
scheme with a Jew pedlar for palming off on some bishop 
an embalmed rat, as an animal till then unknown. So 
6 cf, Stephen's Lect. Hist. Fr., i. 87. 




[ROM, EMP] 



MvuigtcthSj Londorb. O.rfvrd Sc Ciunbridge. 



The Franks and the Papacy 263 

intense, in fact, was tlie mere animal life in Charles, that 
he seemed to throw all his energy into whatever he was 
doing, and to do it better than anything else, far better than 
any one else. His dress and his habits were equally simple. 
Drunkenness, the bosom sin of his countrymen, was not one 
of his; while the chastity, however, which distinguished 
them, was by him more honoured in the breach than the 
observance. He loved to be read to at meals, especially 
from St. Augustine, or from those " Barbara et. antiquis- 
sima carmina," which were the backbone of the Mbelung- 
enlied.'' He was a clear and fluent speaker, having perfect 
command of Latin, and understanding Greek — an eager 
student of logic and astronomy. His one insuperable 
difficulty was writing, which no efforts enabled him to 
master. His generous nature led him to scatter charity 
broadcast; poor Christians received his alms even so far 
afield as Syria, Egypt, Carthage. It is hardly needful to 
add that the Popes were loaded with presents, rich and 
unnumbered. On the whole, of all the men whom the 
world has agreed to call " great," it will be hard to find 
more than one or two, who can equal, much less surpass, 
Charles the Frank. He was as energetic and undaunted 
as Frederick of Prussia, as eager a civiliser as Peter of 
Eussia; hardly less successful than Alexander or Napo- 
leon, yet greater than any of them, more generous, more 
simple, more superior to all his contemporaries, Perhaps 
one man only in history has been the equal of Charles in 
energy, courage, wisdom, and success, while morally far 
superior, and that was the English Aelfred.^ 

General Summary. — We have thus traced the his- 
tory of 400 years, which have an interest peculiarly their 
own. Change of some sort is a matter of course in so 
long a period of every nation's life — change of thought, 
^ Cf. Chapter viii. ^ Cf. Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. i. p. 53. 



264 History of the Roman Empire 

manners, and laws. The Greece of the Achaean League 
differed from that of Themistocles, as the Rome of Csesar 
from that of the Decemvirate, or the England of the 
nineteenth century from that of the fifteenth; hut it was 
not the same kind of difference as existed between 
the Eome of Csesar and the Rome of Theodoric, or of 
Gregory, or of Charles. It is no longer the same people, 
living in the same land, whose ideas and customs change 
as they conquer or are conquered by other nations, or as 
the balance of wealth and power is transferred from one 
class of society to another. We are concerned with an 
" Empire " — many nations, not one only — and that an 
Empire whose population itself was far more deeply modi- 
fied (if not wholly changed) than the institutions or customs 
which ruled it. Look at it in the fourth century, and it 
might seem that a State, so welded together by a far- 
reaching, all pervading uniformity had nothing to fear 
from the attacks of barbarians. Look at it in the ninth 
century, and a hasty glance hardly detects any relics of 
the old Imperial State. Amid Christians and Moham- 
medans — between Greeks, Italians, Lombards, Avars, 
Goths, and Franks — all seems confusion, disunion, strife. 
But this book Will have been written in vain if it has 
not shown a " continuity of history " even in these con- 
fused 400 years. The Imperial Government in the "West 
passed away, it is true, but Imperial ideas survived. 
Barbarian kings bore swayj but in theory they were 
lieutenants of the Emperor at Constantinople; till one 
among them revived what was only in abeyance, the 
Roman Empire of the West, to drag on a lingering exist- 
ence even into our own century. As Greece took cap- 
tive the conquering Roman, so Rome took captive the 
conquering barbarian, and gave him her language, ideas, 
laws, and religion. What looked in the fifth century hke 



The Franks and the Papacy 265 

the riain of all that was worth preserving, the veritable 
" end of a world," was, in fact, only a transference of 
power to those who already possessed its reahty. It was 
a change of form, not of essence; and the men who 
swayed Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries strove 
to do so on the principles and in the spirit of the old 
Empire. Thus, from first to last, it was one idea under 
varying forms which ruled the minds of men — the idea 
of one great Eoman Empire, which in becomiug Christian 
had become " Holy." " Eome alone (it has been well 
said) founded an Universal Empire, in which all earlier 
history loses itself, and out of which all later history 
grew." ^ 

^ Freeman's General Sketch, cap. i. p. 16. 



THE 



SYNOPSIS OF HISTORICAL EVENTS. 



GENEALOGY OF FAMILY OF THEODOSIUS. 


_ Theodosius I. (378-395.) _ 




(Elia Flacilla (1st wife). 


Galla (2d wife). 




1 i 1 1 


CI. Ataulphus. 


Gratian. Pulclieria. Arcadius. Honorius. Placidia = ■<; br. of Alaric. | 




1 (2. Constantius | 


Flacilla. Pulcheria ) Arcadia. Theodosius 11. Marina. Honoria. Valentinian III. 




= Marcian. j" | 




1 




1 

T7i„iii„ f Eudo 


1 
xia 


(Placidia. Eudoxia. > 


■^'"'''''"''1 =ValentinianIIL \=Olyhrius. =Hmineric.j' 


Tlderic 


(killed 533). 


A.D. 


WEST. 


A.D. 


EAST. 


395 


Honorius. . . Emperor. 




Arcadius. . .Emperor. 




( = Stilicho, the Vandal.) 




( = Rufinus, the Gaul.) 


396 


Campaign of Stilicho • 




against Alaric the Visigoth in 

Chrysostom, Abp. of Constantinople. 
(398-403.) 






398 


402 


Alaric crosses Alps into Italy. 




403 


Battle of Pollentia. 
Capital of West changed from Milan to 
Ravenna. 










404 


Chrysostom in exile at Cucusus. 


405 


Inroad of "Vandals, Suevi, Alani, and 
Burgundians under Eadagaisus into 








Italy and Gaul. 


407 


Death of Chrysostom. 


408 


Murder of Stilicho. 

First siege of Rome by Alaric. 


408 


Theodosius II. 


409 


Second siege of Rome by Alaric. 
Withdrawal of Romans from Britain. 






410 


Third siege and sack of Rome. 
Death of Alaric. 






419 


Final settlement of Visigoths in Aquitaine 
= Capital, Toulouse. 






423 


Valentinian III. 










428 


Nestorius, the heretic, patriarch of 
Constantinople. 


429 


Vandals under Genseric to Africa. 

[Vandal Empire = 431-534.] 
Death of S. Augustine. 










431 


Deposition of Nestorius at Council of 
Ephesus. 



Synopsis of Historical Events. 



267 



WEST. 



EAST. 



149 



451 



452 
453 

455 



457 
461 
467 



472 
473 
474 



475 

486 

493 



526 



533 
534 
535 
536 
539 
540 
541 

^44- 
552 
553 
554 



Conquest of Britain by the English. 
(449-550.) 

Attila invades Gaul. 

Battle of Chalons. 
The Huns invade Italy. 
Death of Attila. 

Maximus. 
Rome sacked by the Vandals. 
Avttus [ = Ricimer]. 
Majorian [ = Ricimer]. 
Severus [ = Ricimer]. 
Anthemius [by Leo]. 

Joint expedition from Eome 
liscus against Carthage. 

Olyhrius. 
Glycerins. 
Julius Nepos. 



Romulus Augustulus. 
Odoacer. 
Chlodwig the Frank in Gaul, founder of 
the Merwing Dynasty. 



Theodoric. 

( Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy."] 
493-553. J 



441- ■(_ Inroads of Huns under Attila into 
446 i Greece. 



450 
451 



457 



474 



Athalaric 



rSon of Amalason- 
tha, Theodoric's 
[ daughter. 



o 
ha 

2 \ 



African Campaign 

Theodatus. 

Italian Campaign 

Vitiges. 

Surrender of Ravenna 

Theodebald. 

Araric. 

Totila. 

(1. Belisarius. 
■ (2. Narses. 
'- Teias. 
Narses, Exarch of Ravenna. 



Totila 



t Exarchate of Ravenna lasts from 554' 
to 752. 



491 



502 
518 



527 
532 



540 
541 



557 



565 
566 



Pulcheria ( = Marcian). 
Council of Chalcedon. 



Leo I. 

and Constantinople under Basi- 



Leo II. 
Zeno. 
The Ostrogoths under Theodoric on the 
Danube. 



Anastasius I. 



Inroad of Persians under Cobades. 
Justin I. (a Dacian). 



Justinian. 
The Nika Eiots. 
of Belisarius. 

of Belisarius. 

to Belisarius, 

Inroad of Persians under Chosroes, 
Persian Campaign of Belisarius. 



Embassy of Avars to Constant, fol- 
lowed by embassy from Turks. 
Justin IF. 

The Lombards and Avars unite to de- 
stroy the Gepid^ on the Danube. 



268 



History of the Roman Empire 



A.D, 



WEST. 



EAST. 



567 
590 

596 



Lombard Invasion of Italy. 

[Lombard Kingdom = 567-774.] 

Po'pe Gregory the Great. 
(590-604.) 



Mission of Augustine to England. 



628 



650 



700 
711- 
713 



Dagobert I., the greatest of tbe Mer- 
wings in Gaul. 



730- 
732 

732 

738 

752 



755 
771 

800 



^Mohammedan Conquest of Africa. 



l Mohammedan Conquest of Spain, 



ICONO- 

( Council of Rome (Gregory II. 
\ V. Iconoclasm. (Gregory III. 

Battle of Tours. 

Gregory III. appeals to Franks v. Lom- 
bards. 

Lombards conquer Exarchate. 

Pope Zacharias sanctions deposition of"^ 
Chilperic by Pippin = Karlings viceV 
Merwings. ) 

Pippin's " Donation " to Pope Stephen= 
Foundation of Temporal Power. 

Charles the Great. 
(771-814.) 



Charles crowned ty Leo III. in St Peter's 
Empekok of the West. 



574 

582 



595 



602 
610 
614- 
620 

622 



626 



632 
639- 
641 

642 
668 

685 
694 
697 
704 

711 
713 
715 
717 



732 



741 



754 



775 
780 
797 



Tiberius II. 
Maurice. 



Avar Empire under Baian = successful 
campaigns of Priscus. 595-602. 

Phocas. 
Heraclius I. 
) Great Persian Invasion = conquest of 
) Holy Land, Syria, Egypt, 
Embassy from Mohammed to Chosroes. 
Persian campaigns of Heraclius. 

(622-628.) 
The Hegira. 

Siege of Constantinople by combined 
Persian and Avar armies. 



Death of Mohammed. 

I Mohammedans conquer Syria and 

f Egypt. 

Constantine III. 
Constans II. 
Constantine IV. (Pogonatus). 
Mohammedans besiege Constantinople, 
f Justinian II. (banished by) 
J Leontius I. (one of his generals.) 
j Tiberius III. 
[_ Justinian restored. 

PJdlippicus. 
Anastasius II. 
Theodosius III. 
Leo III. (the Isaiman), 

CLASM. 

Second Mohammedan siege of Constanti- 
nople. (717-718 = 13 months.) 



Final attempt (and failure) of Eastern 
Empire to reconquer Italy. 



Constantine V. (Copronymus). 



Council of Constantinople condemns "all 
visible symbols of Christ except in 
Eucharist." 



Leo IV. 

Constantine VI. (Poi-phyrogenitus) . 

Irene. 

(797-802.) 



INDEX 



Abderrahman .... 251 
Acacius (Bp. of Bereea) . 74 
Adda, Battle of the . . 166 

AdelcMs 257 

Adrian ople, Battle of . . 50 
Aelfred .... 140, 263 

Aelli 234 

Aethelbert .... 237-8 
Aetius quarrels with Boni- 
face, 119 ; banished to 
Pannonia, 127 ; saves 
Gaul from Attila, 148- 
151 ; murdered by Yalen- 
tinian III., 120, 156 

Africa, conquered by Yan- 
dal s, 1 25-8 ; byArabs, 227 

Agnatic 16 

Aidan 238-9 

Alani . . 105, 123, 151, 181 
AIaric,the Yisigoth, at Bat. 
Adrianople ; with Theo- 
dosius in Italy, 97 ; oc- 
cupies Illyricum, 98-9 ; 
in Peloponnesus, "Mas- 
ter-General," 101 ; in- 
vades Italy, 104; de- 
feated at PoUentia, 105 ; 
second invasion of Italy, 
111 ; sacks Rome, 116 ; 
buried in Fl. Basentinus, 
116 
Alboin, the Lombard . . 230 

Aldhelm 239' 

Alexander, Charles com- 
pared to 263 

Ali .... 218, 219, 226 

Amalafrida 180 

Amalasontha, d. of Theo- 

doric 183 

Amrou 227 

Anastasius, Emp. of East 

168, 170, 176, 196 



Angles 236 

Anglia, East .... 236 
Anianus, Bp. of Orleans 

122, 138, 148 
Antes, a tribe of Slaves . 193 
Anthemius, Emp. of West 

120, 131 
Antioch, Arian Council of 88 

Antonina 185 

Antoninus, Bp . of Ephesus 73 

Antrustions 250 

Aquileia 152, 165 

Arabia . 212, 213, 214, 220 
Arcadius, Emp. of East 56, 57 
Ardshir (Artaxerxes) . 195 
Arians . 50, 75, 88, 170, 182 
Ariminum . . . . . 186 
Arminius, victory of, over 

Yarns 252 

Armorica (Brittany) 249, 250 
Arpad, the Magyar . . 142 
Aryans, who were they ? 
42, 43 ; two divisions of; 
migrations of Kelts — of 
Teutons, 44 — of Slaves, 
45 ; encroach on Rom. 
Emp. A.D. 81-285, 46 
Aspar ..... 127, 131 
Astolph, the Lombard, 255-6 
Asylum, Right of . . 58, 62 
Ataulf, the Yisigoth . . 117 
Athalaric, the Ostrogoth . 183 

Athanasius, St 232 

Athens 100 

Attains, Emp. of West 113, 114 
Attila, the Hun, 136 ; le- 
gends of, Gallo-Roman, 
137 ; Gothic, 139 ; W. 
German and Scandina- 
vian, 140 ; Hungarian, 
142; Empire of, 143; 
compared to Theod. II. , 



2/0 



Index 



144 ; claims Princess 
Honoria, 146 ; invades 
Gaul, 1 47 ; repulsed from 
Orleans, 149 ; defeated 
at Chalons, 150 ; ravages 
N. Italy, 152, 165 ; in- 
terview with Pope Leo 
I. ; death of, 153 ; re= 
suits of death, 155-6 
Augustine, Bp. of Hippo 

122, 126, 263 
Augustine, Missionary to 

the English . . 235, 237-8 
Augustus {See Csesar). 

Austrasia 249-51 

Autharis, the Lombard 231, 241 
Auvergne ceded to Yisigoths 157 
Avars 197-200, 203, 205, 206, 
208-9, 230, 260 
Avitus, Emp. of West 120, 148 
Ayesha 222 

B^da 234, 239 

Bahram, the Persian . . 201 
Baian, the Avar . . . 200 

Basentinus, Fl 116 

Basiliscus commands ex 

pedition against Vandals 

131, 179 ; defeated ; re 

turns in disgrace, 132-4 

Basques ... 43, 249, 261 

Bedouins . . . 212, 214, 221 

Beglenitza 173 

Bekr, Abu . . 219, 224, 226 
Belisarius, early years and 
character, 178,187; com- 
pared to Marlborough ; 
quells "Nika" riot, 177; 
conquers Vandal Africa, 
180-2; Sicily, 183; S. 
Italy and Eome, 184; be- 
sieged in Rome, 184 ; 
takes Ravenna, 186 ; re- 
unites Italy to Empire, 
187 ; defeats Bulgarians, 
196 ; Persians, 201 

Benedict, St 232 

Benedict 239 

Berhte (Bertha), Queen 237, 238 



Biscop 239 

Bleda 143 

Boethius 170 

Boniface, Count of Africa 

119, 125-7 
Bretwalda (Brytenwalda) 

237, 239 
Britain . . . 100, 235, 236 

Buddha 215 

Bulgarians (Finns) 

192, 201, 208, 209 
Burgundians, migrations 
of, 51 ; pass into Gaul,51, 
248-9 ; embrace Chris- 
tianity, 52 ; present at 
Bat.Chalons,151; defeat- 
ed by Dagobert, 250 
Byzantium {See Constan- 
tinople), 

Caaba at Mecca 214, 218, 220 

Cfedmon 239 

Csesar, Julius, 3, 4 ; Au- 
gustus, 4, 248; Tiberius, 
6, 6 ; Claudius, 5, 114, 
248 ; ITero, 21, 22, 23, 25 
Calvin, ...... 167 

Canterbury 237 

Caput Vada 181 

Caracallus, Edict of . . 7, 8 
Carloman, son of Charles 

Martel .... 254, 255 
Carloman, son of Pippin 256 
Carthage . 25, 127, 132, 181 
Catherine (of Russia) . . 199 
Ceadda (St Chad) . . . 239 
Celibacv of clergy ... 39 
Chaganus ("Great Khan") 198 
Chalons, Battle of . 149, 151 
Charles "Martel" 

243, 247, 251, 253 
Charles "'the Great" suc- 
ceeds Pippin ; married, 
256 ; confirms and in- 
creases "donation" tc 
Papacy, 256, 258; con- 
quers Lombards, 257 ; 
crowned by Pope Leo, 
160, 258 ; consequences 



Index 



271 



of coronation, 259 ; cam- 
paigns and conquests, 
260-1; policy, 261-2; 
personal cliaracteristics, 
262-3 

Childeric 254 

Chlodwig (Clovis), tlie 

Frank .... 249, 250 
Chlotaire, the Frank . . 202 
Chlothild, the Burgundian 249 
Chosroes I., the Persian . 201 
Chosroes II. 201, 202, 205, 208 
Christianity, moral effects 
of, 34, 35 ; recognised 
"State Religion," 31, 39; 
pagan customs admitted, 
243 
Christians confounded with 
Jews, 21 ; why perse- 
cuted, 22 ; effects of per- 
secution ; apologies, 23, 
24 ; in Arabia, cent, vii., 
214 
Chrobats (Croatians) . . 208 

Chrysaphius 145 

Chrysopolis (Scutari) . . 206 
Chrysostom (John of An- 
tioch), life at Antioch, 
59 ; Abp. of Constan- 
tinople, 61 ; personal 
characteristics, 62, 71, 
72; gives "asylum" to 
Eutropius, 64-66 ; un- 
popular, 68-72 ; quarrels 
with Severianus, 73 ; 
with Acacius, 74 ; with 
Arians, 75 ; involved in 
fortunes of the "Tall 
brothers," 76 ; con- 
demned by Council of 
the Oak, 83 ; preaches 
against Empress, 84 ; 
First Exile, 84 ; recalled, 
85 ; condemned by Coun- 
cil of Constantinople, 91 ; 
appeals to Bishops of the 
West, 91 ; Second Exile, 
93 ; dies at Comana in 
Pontus, 94 



Church, importance of,A.D. 
300, 20; persecuted by 
ISTero, 21 ; by Decius, 25 ; 
by Diocletian, 27 ; To- 
leration under Constan- 
tine ; Edict of Milan, 
30 ; Council of Nicsea, 
A.D. 325, 30, 38; Or- 
ganisation of, 35, 39 ; 
Celibacy of clergy — Ec- 
clesiastics State offici- 
cials, 39 ; importance 
of Roman Bishop and 
clergy, 40 ; abuses in 
East, 70 ; Arians in Con- 
stantinople, 75 
Claudius {8ee Csesar). 
Code, Roman law . . . 175 
Constantino I. (the Great) 
founds Constantinople, 
13 ; changes constitu- 
tion, 14 ; becomes a 
Christian, 30; presides 
at Council of Nicaea — 
issues Edict of Milan, 3C 
Constantine Y. (Coprony- 

mus) 244 

Constantine YI. . . . 245 
Constantinople, founded 
by Constantine ; descrip- 
tion of, 13, 207 ; Coun- 
cil of, A.D. 404 ; 87-91 ; 
riots at, in defence of 
Chrysostom, 85, 90, 92 ; 
besieged by Avars and 
Persians, 205-8 ; by 
Arabs and Persians, 243 ; 
Council of, A.D. 746, 244 
Councils, of Nicsea, 30 ; of 
the Oak, 81-3 ; of Con- 
stantinople, of Antioch, 
88 ; of Constantinople, 
244 ; of Mcsea, of Rome 245 
Cutriguri (Huns) ... 193 
Cyprian, Bp. of Carthage 24, 25 

Dacia 192 

Dagobert, the Frank . . 250 

Deiri (English) .... 234 



2/2 



Index 



d'Enghien, Due, put to 

death by Napoleon . . 167 
Dengizikh, son of Attila . 191 
Deogratias, Bp. of Carthage 129 
Desiderius, last Lombard 

King 256-7 

Digest, Eoman law . . 195 
Diocletian, his reforms, and 
failure,10,13;Edictof,28 

Dobrudscha 192 

Donatists 125 

Ecgberht, King of "Wessex 
and Bretwalda, 237 ; 
King of theEnglish, 239; 
ally of Charles the Great, 
261 
Edecon . . . 139, 145, 158 
Edictum ' ' Perpetuum, " 

''Provinciale" ... 18 
Eginhard (Einhardus) . . 262 

Egypt 7, 226 

Emnedzar, son of Attila . 191 
Empire, state of, A.d. 395, 
1 ; divided into " East" 
and '-"West," 13; reli- 
gious unity, 31 ; effects 
of civil and foreign wars, 
32 ; relations with bar- 
barians, cent, i.-iv., 45, 
46 ; dangers of, a.d. 500, 
191; "Western," trans- 
ferred to Franks, 259 ; 
- "Holy," "Eoman," 265 
England .... 236, 238 
English, law of succession, 
180 ; slaves in Rome, 
234 ; conquer Britain, 
236 
Epiphanius, Bp. of Sa- 

lamis 79, 80 

Epiphanius, Bp. of Pavia 

122, 159 
Ermanaric, the Ostrogoth, 

49, 140 

Essex 236 

Eucherius, son of Stilicho 

108, 110 
Eudocia 129 



Eudoxia, the Frank, 

57, 63, 83-5, 86 
Eudoxia, wife of Valen- 

tinian . . . 119, 120, 129 
Eutropius 57, 58, 61, 63, 64-7 
Exarchate, limits of . . 231 

Fabianus, Bishop of Rome 25 

Finns 193 

Francia 249 

Franks (Low Dutch), a Con- 
federation, 52 ; history 
of,cent. i.-v.,248; settled 
in Gaul, 249 ; allied with 
Romans against Attila, 
149; Empire of, A.D. 500, 
249; invade Italy, 186; re- 
pulse Avars, 200 ; under 
Chlodwig, 259 ; .defeat 
Saracens at Tours, 251 ; 
under Charles, 260-2 
Frederic (of Prussia), 

Charles compared to . 263 
French retreat from Mos- 
cow 199 

Gainas, the Goth . . 98-100 
Gainas, in Lincolnshire . 236 

Galba 7 

Galerius ..... 28-30 
Gaul, organised by Clau- 
dius, 5 ; escapes per- 
secution of Diocletian, 
29 ; condition of, under 
Romans, 248 ; denuded 
of troops by Stilicho, 
100; overrun by Vandals, 
&c., 107, 123, 248; di- 
vided between Franks, 
Burgundians, and Yisi- 
goths, 249; invaded by 
Attila, 147; under Chlod- 
wig, 249 ; under Dago- 
bert, 250 
Gelasius, Pope . . . . 161 
Gelimer, the Yandal . 180-2 
Genevieve . . . 138, 147 
Genseric, the Vandal, 119; 
character of, 124 ; in- 



Index 



273 



vades Africa, 125-7 ; 
takes Carthage, 127 ; 
appealed to by Eudoxia, 
128; sacks Rome, 129; 
defeats Basiliscus, 133 ; 
compared to Epaminon- 
das, 134 
Gepidse {See Goths), 
German (West) traditions 
ofAttila ..... 140 

Germanus 188 

Gildo, revolt of .... 102 
Glycerius, Emp. of West, 

120, 157 
Goths, migration of, 46, 49; 
empire of Ermanaric, 49 
Visigoths^ cross Danube ; 
bat. of Adrianople, 50; 
Alaric, King, 97 ; invade 
Greece, 100; Italy, 104; 
defeated at Pollentia, 
105; sack Eome, 113-6; 
conquer S. Italy, m6; 
overrun Gaul and Spain, 
117, 248; settled in 
Aquitaine, 117, 249 ; 
attack Yandals, 123 ; 
with Romans at Chalons, 
150 ; masters of Nar- 
bonne, 161 ; allied with 
Ostrogoths, 168 ; with 
Franks, 250 
Ostrogoths, subject to Huns, 
49 ; traditions about 
Attila, 139-; with Huns 
at Chalons, 150 ; revolt 
after Attila's death, 155, 
190—1; occupy Dalmatia, 
&c., 155 ; invade Italy, 
163 ; occupy, 168 ; com- 
pared to Normans in 
England, 169 ; stand 
aloof from Yandals, 181 ; 
attacked by Belisarius, 
184 ; lose all Italy but 
Pa via, 187 ; recover it 
under Totila ; defeated 
again by Narses, 188 ; 
name of, vanishes, 189 



Gepid(B, 48, 49, 149, 150, 155, 
191, 199, 200, 229, 230 

Greek, influence in East, 
195; "Fire," 243 

Gregory I. , Pope, the great, 
228; earlyyears; becomes 
a monk, 232; personal 
characteristics, 233-4 ; 
story of English slaves, 
234; sends Augustine to 
Britain, 237; "Pope" 
and "Patriarch of the 
West," 240 ; virtually 
"King," 244 

Gregory II., Pope . 242, 245 

Gregory III., Pope; holds 
council of Rome, 245 ; 
appeals to Franks against 
Lombards, 247, 253 

Gudrunn, or Chriemhild . 141 

Gunther 141 

Hadrian, Emperor . . . 7, 18 
Hadrian, Pope . . . 256-7 

Hagen 141 

Hegira, the (a.d. 622) . 219 

Helena, mother of Con- 

stantine the Great . 29, 202 
Heptarchy, the, in Eng- 
land 236 

Heraclius, general under 

Basiliscus .... 132-4 
Heraclius, Emp, of East, 
202 : Avar plot to seize, 
203 ; invades Persia, 204; 
lands in Colchis, reaches 
Ispahan, 205; allied with 
Khazars; wins battle Ni- 
neveh, 206 ; returns, 208 

Hermingard 256 

Hernakh, son of Attila . 191 

Herulians 156 

Hildegard 256 

Hildegonde 153 

Hilderic, the Vandal . . 180 
Hindoos (Aryans) ... 44 
Honoria, Princess . . 142, 146 
Honorius, Emp. of West, 
55-6; marries Stilicbo's 



274 



Index 



daughter, 95; policy of, 

in Spain, 123; in Gaul, 

124, 248; in Britain, 

235; connives at murder 

of Stiliclio, 110; state of 

West after death of, 118 

Honorius, Pope . . . • 208 

Huneric, ilie Vandal 129, 180 

Hungarian traditions of 

Attila , . . . . 141-2 
Huns (Turanians), 43-4, 
142, 150, 155, 190, 192; 
early history and charac- 
teristics, 47; destroy Er- 
manaric's empire, 48-49 ; 
in central Europe, 143; 
invade Gaul, 147; N. 
Italy, 152; after death 
of Attila, 191; with Be- 
lisarius in Africa, 181; 
overrun Thrace, 196 ; 
conquered by Avars, 197; 
Avars themselves Huns, 
198 
Hwiccas, in Gloucester and 
Worcestershire . . . 236 

Ibrahim 221 

Iconoclasm .... 242, 244 

Igours 193 

lUyricum, Eastern and 

Western, 97, 98, 100, 101, 119 
Innocent I., Pope , . 91, 113 
Innocent III., Pope . . 240 
Institutes, Roman law . 175 

lona 238 

Irene, Empress .... 244 

Ishmael, forefather of Arabs 213 
Isidore ...... 60 

Islam . . 222, 223, 225, 227 
Isonzo, Fl. battle of . . 165 

Ispahan 205 

Istok 173 

Italy, assessed for land-tax, 
12 ; invaded by Alaric, 
104; by Radagaisus, 107; 
by Alaric, 111; by Attila, 
152: by Theodoric, 163; 
by Beiisarius, 184 ; by 



Alboin, 230; sympathises 
with Odoacer, 165; happy 
under Ostrogoths, 167 ; 
after Theodoric' s death, 
182-3; incorporated with 
East. Empire, 187 ; con- 
sequences, 189, 229; di- 
vided between Emp. and 
Lombards, 231-2; power 
of Popes, 240-1, 256, 
258 ; end of Exarchate, 
245-6 ; conquered by 
Charles the Great, 260-1 

Jews, in Babylon, 198, 243; 

in Arabia 21 4 

Joannites, friends of Chry- 

sostom 90 

John {8ce Chrysostom) 

John, Archdeacon ... 81 

John, of Damascus . . 244 

Jovius 113 

Julian, Emperor ... 31 

Julian, Count, invites Arabs 

_ to Africa ..... 227 

Julius {See Caesar) 

Justin I., Emp. of East, 

170, 173, 196 
Justin II., Emp. of East 200 
Justinian (Uprauda) cha- 
racter of; compared to 
Philip II., 173-4; codi- 
fies Roman law, 175 ; 
quells "Nika" riot, 176; 
conquers Vandals, 179- 
182; Ostrogoths, 183- 
188 ; attacked by Bul- 
garians, 196 ; allied with 
Avars, 197 ; with Turks, 
198 ; brings Lombards 
to Pannonia, 229 
Jutes occupy Kent, &c. . 236 

Kadijah 217 

Kahtan, forefather of Arabs 213 

Karlings 250, 254 

Kelts 44, 45, 213, 235, 236, 248, 

249 
Kent 236 



Index 



275 



Khalid, the "Sword of God" 221 

Khazars 206 

Koran, Al, "The hook," 

217, 223, 224 
Koreish 216, 219 

Law, severity of early 
Roman, 15-17; gradually 
mitigated, 17; "Eesponsa 
prudentum," "Edictum 
perpetuum," 18; "Edic- 
tum provinciale," 19 ; 
codified by Justinian, 175 
Leo I., Pope 122, 129, 138, 153 
Leo II., Pope . . . 160, 258 
Leo III., Emp. of East, the 
"Iconoclast" . . 242-4 

Lihanius 59 

Libellatici 24 

Lindisfaras 237 

Lombards, migrations of, 
cent. i.-vii., 53,156, 229; 
songs of, 140 ; on the 
Danube, 191 ; in Panno- 
nia, 199-200; attacked 
by Avars, 203 ; invade 
Italy, 230 ; laws of, 231 ; 
masters of Italy, except 
Exarchate, 232; converts 
from Arianism, 240 ; 
allied with Franks, 250 ; 
conquered by Charles 
the Great, 257, 260 
LongiQus, Exarch of Ra- 
venna, 230 
Luitprand the Lombard, 

244, 247, 253, 254 
Lupus, Bp. of Troyes 138, 153 

Magessetas in Herefordshire 236 

Magians 214 

Magyars 142 

Major-Domus, "Mayor of 

the Palace" .... 250 
Majorian, Emp. of West . 120 
Mantua, Conference of 138, 153 
Marcellinus . . 131, 132, 134 
Marcian, Emp. of East, 

130, 152, 155 



Margus, Treaty of . ~ . , 144 
Maria, wife of Honorius . 95 
Marlborough, Belisarius 
compared to ... . 178 

Martin, St., church of . 238 
Maurice, Emp. of East . 201 
Maximin, first barbarian 
Emperor, .... 7, 165 

Mecca, . . . . .214, 220 

Medina (Yathreb) . . 219, 222 
Mercia, kingdom of . . 236 
Merwing dynasty . .249, 250 
Milan, capital of the West, 
11 ; edict of, 30 ; sacked 
by Attila, 152 
Misenum ...... 159 

Missi Dominii .... 262 

Moawija ...... 226 

Mohammed, "AlAmin," 
early years of, 215; per- 
sonal characteristics, 216, 
222, 226; marries Kadi- 
jah — his vision, 217; was 
he an impostor ? 218 ; 
"Prophet of God," 217, 
218; hostility — flight 
to Medina — makes con- 
verts, 219; wars against 
Infidels;takes Mecca,220; 
defeats Romans ; sends 
ambassadors to Hera^ 
clius and Yezdegerd, 221; 
buried at Medina, 222 
Mohammedans, success of, 
210 ; causes of success, 
211, 215, 218; creed 
and practice of, 222-6; 
largely borrowed^ from 
other religions, 225 ; 
conquests of, a.d. 632- 
711, 226-7 ; defeated by 
Leo, 343; by Charles 
Martel, 247 

Moors 125 

Moses, Mohammed com- 
pared to 215 

Moseylemah ... . , 214 

Moslemah 243 

Moundzukh 143 



2/6 



Index 



Kaples 184 

Napoleon . . 3, 167, 261, 263 
Narses, Exarch, of Ravenna 

126, 186, 188, 230 

Nectarius 60 

Nepos, Emp. of "West, 

120, 121, 157, 161, 162 
Nero {See Caesar) 
Netad, Battle of 155, 190, 193 
Neustria . . . 249, 250 251 
Nibelungen Lied . . 141, 263 
Nicsea, Council of, a.d., 
325, 30; a.d. 785 . . 245 

Kicomedia 28 

Nika riot at Constanti- 
nople 175-6 

Mneveh, Battle of . . . 206 
Nitria, The "tall brothers" 
of ....... 76-9 

IJorthumherland . 236, 238 

Odoacer, the Herulian, 
122 ; son of Edecon, 
139 ; rise of, 158 ; sup- 
plants Orestes, 159 ; 
"King" in Italy, 160; 
cedes Narbonne to Yisi- 
goths,161 ; "Patrician"; 
adds Sicily to kingdom, 
162 ; defeated by Theo- 
doriCj 165; divides Italy 
with; mnrderedbyTheo- 
doric, 166 

Offa 261 

Ogres 193 

Olybrius, Emp. of West, 120, 130 

Olympius 109 

Omar 221, 226 

Orestes, the Pannonian, 
father of Augustulus, 
121, 156 ; Ambassador 
ofAttila,145; "Master- 
General " of West, 156 ; 
revolt of — his son, Em- 
peror, 157 ; downfall 
and execution, 158-9 
Origen, Bp. of Alexandria, 

25, 76, 80 
Orleans . . . . 148, 149 



Ostia 114 

Ostrogoths {See, Goths) 

Oswald 238 

Oswio (Bretwalda) . . . 239 

Othman 226 

Ouar-Khouni(^ee Avars) 198,201 

Oxus, El 226 

Paganism dying out . 30, 31 
Papacy, policy of, in Italy, 
189 ; increasing influ- 
ence, 240-1 ; "Temporal 
power," 256, 258; Re- 
lations to Western Em- 
pire of Franks, 259 

Paris 147 

Parthians (Turanians) . . 194 
Patria potestas . . . 15, 16 
Paulus ...... 159 

Pavia, the Lombard capi- 
tal . . 152, 159, 187, 280 
Pelagius, Pope .... 234 

Peloponnesus . . . . 101 

Penda, King of Mercia . 238 
Persecutions of Christians 
by Nero, 21 ; by Trajan, 
22-3 ; by Decius, 25 ; by 
Diocletian, 28-9 
Persians (Aryans), 43, 44 ; 
dynasty of SassanidsB; 
9, 45 ; defeat Emp. 
Valerian, 46 ; sketch of 
history of, e.g. 558 — a.d. 
430, 194 ; encroach upon 
Empire, 201; allied with 
Avars, 205 ; besiege 
Constantinople, 206-8 ; 
conquered by Arabs, 226 
Peter of Russia, Charles 
compared to ... . 263 

Petronius,Emp.of West, 120,128 

Phocas 202 

Picts (or Peghts) ... 235 
Pilgerein, Bp. of Passau . 141 
Pippin of Heristal, 251 ; 
King of the Franks, 
254-5; "donation" to 
Papacy, 256 
Placidia, d. of Theodosius — 



Tnc^ex 



277 



«' Regent " of the West 
for Iter sonValentinian — 
cedes West. lUyricumto 
East. Emp., 119 
Placidia, d. of Yalentinian 

III 129, 130 

PoUentia, Battle of . . 105 
Pope, meaning of nam"'- . 240 
Prisons .... 136, 145 
Procopins . . . 171, 173 
Provinces support "demo- 
crats" at Eome, 2 ; 
especially J. Csesar, 3 ; 
results of his murder, 4; 
policy of Augustus — 
Tiberius — Claudius, 5 ; 
Hadrian — Caracallus, 7; 
growing independence 
of, 9 ; policy of Diocle- 
tian, 10 
Provincials appointed Em- 
perors 7 

Puritans, Mohammedans 
compared to • . . , 220 

Quod vult Deus, Bp. of 
Carthage 127 

Eachis, the Lombard . . 254 
Eadagaisus the Goth . 106-7 
Eamadhan, Mohammedan 

month of fasting . 217,225 
Eavenna .... 159, 166 

Eeculver 238 

Eesponsa prudentum (Eo- 

man law) 18 

Eicimer the Sueve, 120, 121, 131 
Eoderic, the Visigoth . . 227 
Eomans and barbarians 
sprung from same stock, 
42 ; change in meaning 
of name, 8 
Rome, removal of court to 
Milan, 11 : and Constan- 
tinople, 13; "church" 
in, 26 ; increased impor- 
tance of Bishopric, 
40, 116; first siege by 
Alaric, 112 ; second, 



114 ; third, and sack of, 
115 ; a Christian city, 
116 ; sacked by Genseric, 
129 ; taken by Belisa- 
rius, 184 ; treatment of, 
by East. Empire, 229; 
included in Exarchate, 
231 ; Gregory the Great, 
"King" of, 240-1; the 
centre of the "temporal 
power," 256, 258 
Eomulus, Augustulus, Emp. 

of West . . .120, 157-9 
Eoncesvalles, Battle of . 261 

Eoumania 192 

Eufinus, the Gaul 56, 99, 100 
Eugians 156 

Sabeeans 214 

Samo, the Frank . . . 208 
Sarus, the Goth . . . 114 
Sassanid, dynasty in Persia, 

195, 226 
Saul, the Goth .... 105 
Saxons (Low Dutch), 52 ; 
piracies of ; conquer 
Britain, 53, 236 ; at- 
tacked by Charles the 
Great, 260 
Scandinavian, traditions of 

Attila 140 

Schaharbarz, the Persian . 205 
Scholasticus, Exarch of 
Eavenna ..... 244 

Scots 235 

Seid .... ... 218 

Semitic races .... 43 

Serena, wife of Stilicho 

95, 110, 112 

Sergius 216 

Servetus ...... 167 

Severianus, Bp. of Gabala, 

73, 74, 83 
Severinus, Bp. of Noricum, 

122, 158 
Severus, Emp. of West . 120 

Shamanism 192 

Sicily ..... 162, 183 
Sigurd, the Netherlander, 141 



2/8 



Index 



Silverius, Pope . . 185, 229 
Sirmiuin, the "vases of" 145 
Slavery, effects of, upon 

Empire 33 

Slaves (Slavonians) 

45, 143, 193, 197, 208, 250 
Sloveni, a tribe of Slaves, 193,'208 
Spain ... 7, 123, 227, 240 
Spoleto, Duchy of . . . 256 
Srp ("Wends ") settled by 

Heraclius in Servia . . 209 
Stephen, St., King of Hun- 
gary 142 

Stephen, Pope .... 255 
Stilicho, the Yandal ; posi- 
tion and character, 
55-56; "Eegentof the 
West," 95-6 ; encounters 
Alaric in lUyricum, 99 ; 
in Peloponnesus, 101 ; 
suppresses revolts in 
Africa, 102 ; in Ehcetia, 
104 ; defeats Alaric at 
Pollentia, 105 ; and 
Eadagaisus at Florence, 
107 ; unpopular, 108 ; 
murdered, 109, 110 
Suevi .... 123, 124, 248 
Sussex (South Saxons) 236, 239 

Symmachus 170 

Synods 37 

Syria conq[uered by Arabs 226 

Talmud, Mohammed in- 
debted to 225 

Tartars, flight of, from 

Eussia 199 

Teias the Ostrogoth . . 188 
Testry, Battle of . . . 270 
Teutons . . . .44, 48, 143 
Thaleb, Abu, uncle of Mo- 
hammed 215 

Thanet, Isle of .... 237 

Theodatus, the Ostrogoth 183 

Theodebert, the Frank . 186 
Theodelinda, Queen of the 

Lombards 240 

Theodora, Empress 

173, 174, 176, 177 



Theodora, Empress, A.i). 
842 ; revives Image wor- 
ship 245 

Theodore 208 

Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 
139, 161 ; in Gothic 
legend, 140 ; defeats Bul- 
garians, 192; sent to 
Italy by Emperor Zeno, 
163 ; defeats Odoacer, 
165-6; King of Italy, 
165 ; murders Odoacer, 
166 ; estimate of the 
deed, 167 ; marriage al- 
liances of, 168 ; policy 
of, 168, 169, 229; last 
years of, 170 
Theodoric, the Yisigoth 148-161 
Theodosius I. "the Great," 
state of Empire at death 
of, 1 ; makes Christianity 
the " State religion," 
31 ; defeats Eugenius 
and Arbogastes, 45, 96, 
165 ; death and will of, 
55 
Theodosius II., Emp. of 

the East . . 119, 144, 175 
Theophilus, Patriarch of 
Alexandria 60, 61, 76-9, 80, 
81, 86 
Thermantia, wife of Hono- 

rius 110 

Thorismond, the Visigoth 151 
Tiberius {See, Csesar) 
Totila, the Ostrogoth . . 188 
Toulouse, capital of Aqui- 

taine 117 

Tours, Battle of 243, 251, 252 
Trajan, Emperor . . 7, 192 
Trasimund, the Yandal . 180 

Tribonian 175 

Turanians 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 

142, 150, 155, 190 
Turks 198 

TJgrians (Finns) . 193, 198 
Uprauda {See Justinian) 
Utiguri (Huns) .... 193 



Index 



279 



Valentinian I., Emp. of 

West 13 

Valentinian IIL, Emp. of 
West .... 118, 120 

Vandalism, meaning of the 
term ...... 124 

Vandals, migrations of, 
cent, i.-iv., 51, 132; pass 
into Gaul, 123, 248; oc- 
cupy Spain ; treatment 
by Rome, 123-4 ; Gen- 
seric, King, 124 ; con- 
quer Africa, 125-7 ; 
sack Rome, 128 ; mas- 
ters of Mediterranean, 
134; decline of empire 
of, 179 ; law of succes- 
sion, 180 ; empire of, 
destroyed by Belisarius, 
182 

Varus 252 

Venice 152 

Verina, Empress . 132, 134 
Verona, Battle of . , . 165 



Vigilius, Pope , . 185, 229 

Visigoths {Sp.e Goths) 

Vitiges, the Ostrogoth . 184-7 

Wahhabees . . . 224, 227 
Wallachia ... 192, 193 
Wallia, the Visigoth 117, 124 
Walter, the Visigoth . . 141 
Warkeh ..'.... 217 

Wehrgeld 231 

Welsh 192 

Wends (Venedi) a tribe of 

Slaves .... 193, 209 
Wessex (West Saxons) . 236 

Wilfrith 239 

William, the Conqueror . 169 
Winfrith (St. Boniface) 239, 254 

Yathreb {See Medina) 
Yezdegerd, the Persian . 221 

Zabergan, the Bulgarian . 196 
Zacharias, Pope .... 253 
Zeno, Emp. of East , 161-3 



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